SAFECAST 10 – Live from Fukushima, Around the Globe

SAFECAST 10TH ANNIVERSARY EVENT, SAT. , MARCH 13, 2021

The rapidly approaching 10th anniversary of the March 11, 2011 Tohoku Earthquake, Tsunami, and Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Disaster also marks the 10th anniversary of the founding of SAFECAST. To commemorate this, SAFECAST is planning a daylong global online event March 13th, 2021, to give updates about our project, the Fukushima situation, the importance of open data for our environment, announce new initiatives, and reflect on the lessons of the momentous past decade. 

SAFECAST 10 will be a free global online livestream event, with a team of Safecasters reporting live from Fukushima throughout the day and discussing important issues as they stop at relevant sites for a firsthand look and hear stories from residents 10 years on. They will be joined by guests online from around the globe to comment and discuss major topics, with musical interludes and video reports.



EVENT SCHEDULE

01 - THE RIDE

Hosted by Pieter Franken and Emmy Nagaoka in Tokyo
Join the Safecast team on a livestreamed road trip through Fukushima to get a firsthand look at the situation today. They will be joined along the way by guests onsite and online in Japan, Asia, and North America, with videos and special live musical appearances.

Start time 09:00 JST / 19:00 EST / 24:00 GMT

SCHEDULE: (subject to minor variation):

  JST  /   EST  /  GMT

09:00 / 19:00-1d/ 00:00LET’S HIT THE ROAD!Musical opening and Welcome from Fukushima and Shibuya.

09:30 / 19:30-1d/ 00:30BIG REVEAL! Ray Ozzie unveils innovative new air quality and radiation monitoring devices!

10:00 / 20:00-1d/ 01:00MONITORINGJ-Village: Is it ready for Olympic athletes and guests? With Ari Beser.

10:30 / 20:30-1d/ 01:30TRANSPARENCY and ACCOUNTABILITYHas TEPCO learned anything in ten years? With Miles O’Brien.

11:00 / 21:00-1d/ 02:00RETURN and REVIVALTomioka was wiped out and evacuated. How is life there now? With Rich Zajac.

11:30 / 21:30-1d/ 02:30SAFECASTING THE ZONEA local volunteer reports from the exclusion zone in Okuma next to Fukushima Daiichi, and we ponder what will become of this dystopian landscape.

11:45 / 21:45-1d/ 02:45MYSTIC VOYAGELive improvisations from Bruce Huebner on shakuhachi and Andy Bevan on didgeridoo accompany our ride through the Zone.

12:00 / 22:00-1d/ 03:00LEADERS, LEARNINGS, & INSIGHTSDr. Kiyoshi Kurokawa will assess what we have learned (or not) from Fukushima and COVID19, while Prof Jun Murai shares his views on the importance of Open Data and Citizen Science.

13:00 / 23:00-1d/ 04:00ONGOING RISKSThe Ono district of Okuma is a famous ghost town inside the exclusion zone, but its railway station was recently reopened with big fanfare. Who will use it? With Tom Gill.

13:15 / 23:15-1d/ 04:15HOW’S THE FOOD?Physicist Yoichi Tao, founder of Fukushima Saisei-no-kai in Iitate Village, shows the progress they’ve made through innovative agriculture and new kinds of social engagement.

13:30 / 23:00-1d/ 04:30THE ZEN OF BGEIGIELearn about the diverse experiences of Geiger counter builders from around the world as we reveal the next version of the bGeigie.

13:45 /23:45-1d/ 04:45CORPORATE SUPPORTMark Davidson of Amway Japan talks about their ongoing efforts to assist in the revival and reconstruction of the Tohoku region, and why they chose to partner with Safecast in Fukushima.

14:00 / 00:00 / 05:00KEEPING TABS on FUKUSHIMA DAIICHIWe unveil our new realtime radiation sensors next to Fukushima Daichi, and talk about our recent fact-finding visits to the damaged plant. And how is the ocean doing? With Ken Beusseler.

14:30 / 00:30 / 05:30INTER MEZZORelax with Chriss Koyama (vocals) and Fumika Asari (guitar), LIVE from Tokyo.

14:45 / 00:45 / 05:45CITY LIFE IN FUKUSHIMAWe hear from long-time Safecasters in Koriyama, businessman Toshikatsu Watanabe and STEM educator Norio Watanabe, about their efforts to foster awareness of the continuing need to monitor the situation in their community.

15:00 / 01:00 / 06:00MEMORYCoastal areas of Fukushima are still a mix of ruins, repairs, and reversion to nature. Along the coast of Futaba and Namie, some ruins have stood untouched for ten years. How is the trauma is being memorialized?

15:30 / 01:30 / 06:30(RE)PERCUSSIONTatopani brings explosive percussion and tribal soundscapes. With virtuoso percussionist Chris Hardy and Andy Bevan on wind instruments

16:00 / 02:00 / 07:00ASIAN PERSPECTIVESKey Safecasters in Seoul, Taipei, and Hong Kong reflect on their efforts and experiences encouraging their own communities. With Tim Wong, Hugh Choi, and Cesar Harada.

17:00 / 03:00 / 08:00POWER OF THE SOULAward winning recording artist Philip Woo (keyboard) joined by Tokyo’s Soul Voice #1 Ashton Moore. Live!

18:00 / 04:00 / 09:00GREEN TECHThought leaders in the Green Finance sphere discuss the increasing importance of impact measurement and how Citizen Science projects like Safecast can play a vital role in independent environmental monitoring. With Sopnendu Mohanty, Jun Yamada and Vincent Thebault.

18:30 / 04:30 / 09:30ENCOREThe legendary Gene Jackson Trio returns to Safecast. Live!

19:00 / 05:00 / 10:00THE WAY FORWARD:Local residents of Odaka gather at the Futabaya Inn to share their experiences restoring their town to viability and their outlook on the future.

20:00 / 06:00 / 11:00HANDOFF to EUROPE

02 - THE ROUNDTABLE

Hosted by Iain Darby and Louise Elstow in the UK
Join leading global experts in radiation, environment, emergency management, policy, and the social sciences as they take stock of the impact and achievements of ten years of Safecast and citizen science after Fukushima, and look towards the future.

SCHEDULE: (subject to minor variation):

  JST  /   EST  /  GMT

20:00 / 06:00 / 11:00Measurement and data from citizen science devices:Experts who have evaluated the bGeigie weigh in on what they found. At the table: Dan Blumenthal, Peter Bossew, Petr Kuca, and Iain Darby moderating.

21:00 / 07:00 / 12:00Getting engaged with SafecastWhat have been the benefits for official agencies who reached out? At the table: Genevieve Beaumont and Azby Brown.

21:20 / 07:20 / 12:20How Safecast travelsReflecting on the spread of data, devices, ideas, and people. At the table: Louise Elstow and Michiel Van Oudheusden.

21:40 / 07:40 / 12:40Radiation and mental health: What are the effects ten years on?Can participation help mitigate post-disaster psycho-social effects? At the table: Sophie Knight and Ben Epstein.

22:00 / 08:00 / 13:00Keynote: How has Safecast influenced research, policies and practices in emergency managementPerspectives on Safecast from the professional radiation management community At the table: Tanja Perko, Jan Helebrant, Astrid Liland, Ralf Kaiser, and Catrinel Turcanu moderating.

23:00 / 09:00 / 14:00Citizen science and perspectives on SafecastHow has Safecast been a model for others? At the table: Marco Zennaro, Joke Kenens, Akiba, and Iain Darby moderating.

23:50 / 09:50 / 14:50Transparency – Ethics and social responsibilityCan citizen science foster transparency? Where does its responsibility lie? At the table: Nadja Zeleznik, Gaston Meskens, and Claire Mays moderating.

24:30 / 10:30 / 15:30The big question: If it happened again tomorrow, what would a good response look like?At the table: Sanjoy Mukhopadhyay, Sean Bonner, Dan Blumenthal, and Iain Darby moderating.

01:00+1/ 11:00 / 16:00WRAPUP: Expectations, Realities, and Anticipating the FutureThe Safecast team looks forward and winds down for the day.

The Ride - Guest List

Ray Ozzie

Ray has long been a pioneer in the areas of communications and social productivity. Through late 2010 he served as chief software architect of Microsoft, the company’s most senior technical leadership role that he assumed following its acquisition of Groove Networks - a company he founded in 1997 to develop software for secure peer-to-peer business team collaboration. Ozzie currently serves as a director of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Safecast, and Balena, and serves as CEO of Blues Wireless. Prior to Groove, in 1984 Ozzie was founder and CEO of Iris Associates, the creator and developer of Lotus Notes that was ultimately acquired by Lotus and IBM. Under his leadership, Lotus Notes grew to be used for e-Mail and low-code collaborative applications by hundreds of millions at most major enterprises worldwide.
Ozzie has been part of the PC industry since its inception, having led development of Symphony at Lotus, and as a developer on the teams developing 1-2-3 at Lotus and VisiCalc at Software Arts. Previously, he served on the National Research Council’s Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, and as a director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).

Miles O'Brien

Miles O’Brien is a veteran, independent journalist who focuses on science, technology and aerospace. He is the science correspondent for the PBS NewsHour, a producer, director, writer and correspondent for the PBS documentary programs NOVA and FRONTLINE and an aviation analyst for CNN. O'Brien traveled to Japan six times in the wake of the Tōhoku Earthquake and wrote, produced and directed three documentaries on the meltdowns in addition to a dozen magazine length stories for the PBS NewsHour. For nearly seventeen of his thirty-eight years in the news business, he was a staff correspondent and anchor with CNN, based in Atlanta and New York. He served as the science, environment and aerospace correspondent and the anchor of various programs, including American Morning. He has won numerous awards over the years, including six Emmys, a Peabody and a DuPont.

Jun Murai (Japan)

Distinguished Professor, Keio University
Jun Murai received his Ph.D. in Computer Science, Keio University in 1987, majored in Computer Science, the Internet and Computer Communication. He established JUNET, the first network in Japan connecting multiple universities, in 1984. In 1988, established the WIDE Project, a Japanese Internet research consortium. Has long been engaged in research related to Internet technology platforms, and is known as the Father of the Internet in Japan and in international circles as the Internet Samurai.
He is a Special Advisor to the Cabinet in Japan and serves on many other governmental committees, and is active in numerous international scientific associations.
He was inducted into 2011 IEEE Internet Award / the 2013 Internet Hall of Fame (Pioneer) / 2019 the Knight of the Legion of Honor by the French Government / 2020 The NEC C&C Prize.

Kiyoshi Kurokawa

Kiyoshi Kurokawa, MD, MACP is Professor Emeritus of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) and University of Tokyo and Chairman of the Health and Global Policy Institute. A graduate of the University of Tokyo School of Medicine, he was professor of medicine at UCLA (1979-84), University of Tokyo (‘89-‘96), Dean of Tokai University Medical School (‘96-‘02); President of the Science Council of Japan (2003-06); and Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of Japan (‘06-‘08). He served as an executive member of many national and international professional societies of his disciplines. He was chair of Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission by the National Diet of Japan (NAIIC)(‘11-‘12) and received "2012 Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award" of AAAS and "100 Top Global Thinkers 2012" of 'Foreign Policy' for his leadership in NAIIC.

Mark Davidson

Mark J. Davidson directs government & external relations, communications, and corporate social responsibility in Japan for Amway, the world’s number-one direct seller. Amway Japan’s Remember HOPE initiative for the rebuilding of community in Tohoku has won numerous national and international awards, including the 2020 Gold Standard Award for most impactful corporate philanthropy program in the Indo-Pacific. Previously, Mark was a senior U.S. diplomat who served in Tokyo, Sapporo, Islamabad, Asuncion, Caracas, Madrid, and Washington, DC.

Chiaki Hayashi (Japan)

Graduated from Waseda University School of Commerce and Boston University Graduate School majoring in Journalism. After working at Kao Corporation, Hayashi founded Loftwork in 2000. Hayashi is a member of the Good Design Awards Screening Committee, METI’s Industrial Construction Council Manufacturing Industry Subcommittee “Study Group on Competitiveness and Design”, and a chairman of Hidakuma that aims to up-cycle the resources into a form of regional value through the utilization of digital fabrication and technology. She was Woman Of The Year 2017 (Nikkei WOMAN).

Sopnendu Mohanty

Chief Fintech Officer of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). He joined MAS in August 2015 responsible for creating development strategies, public infrastructure and regulatory policies around technology innovation. Since 2015, Singapore has become one of the top global fintech hubs covering a wide range of financial asset classes including adjacent technology innovations in areas like insurance, digital assets, blockchain, artificial intelligence, reg-tech and green-finance.
Before MAS, Sopnendu spent over 20 years in various leadership roles in technology, finance and innovation with most of his career in Citigroup. Sopnendu is a member of multiple advisory committees of multilateral global agencies, associations, universities, and governments. He is an avid speaker, global thought leader in FinTech, and advocate of accelerated transformation to a digital economy for solving financial inclusion and sustainability challenges.

Jun Yamada

Jun Yamada serves as CEO of Aizu Electric Power Company since August 2013. The company develops renewable electricity energy including solar, wind, hydro and biomass. Through the renewable energy developments, he intends to revitalize Fukushima region which was badly affected by the nuclear power plant accident occurred in 2011.
Yamada previously served as senior vice president of Qualcomm from March 2009, and was appointed to president of Qualcomm Japan in March 2005. Yamada joined Qualcomm in 1998, and worked on standards, new technology development, technology marketing, carrier and industry relations, and so on.

Vincent Thebault

Japanese martial artist and former banker of a European agricultural financial group known for pioneering green finance. He is now on a mission to guide investors towards positive environmental impact. Launching an initiative that includes a financial blockchain reporting with a direct data input from the sensors at renewable energy plants level. A Safecast like network of sensors and other state-of-the-art technologies should lead to further financial innovation to rescue the planet.

Hugh Choi (Korea)

Hugh Choi is a technology strategist exploring emerging technologies at the borderless physical and digital world and an innovation catalyst catalyzing creative inventions and innovations to design the better future for good.
He is a co-founder of Pan Asian Network, a founder and CEO at LIFESQUARE and Future Designers. He is a board of directors at CODE and a lead activist of Safecast Korea as well.

Yoichi Tao

NPO Resurrection of Fukushima , Executive Director; Visiting Researcher, Kogakuin University. Born in 1941 in Yokohama City. He earned a master’s degree in physics (high energy accelerator physics) from the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Science in 1967. In 1979, he established private-sector think tank Laboratory for Innovators of Quality of Life and became its president and CEO. Since April 1991, he was also the Information Strategy Department director of SECOM. From 1995 to 2005, he served on the board of directors for the same company, and in the meantime, he was also the president of Tokyo Internet KK, the president and CEO of SECOM Information Systems Co., Ltd., Entrust Japan Co., Ltd., SECOM Trust Net Co., Ltd., and the managing CIO/CISO of SECOM Co., Ltd.

Ken Buesseler

Dr. Ken Buesseler is a marine radiochemist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who has studied fallout from atmospheric nuclear weapons testing, Chernobyl impacts on the Black Sea, and radionuclide contaminants in the Pacific resulting from nuclear testing on the Marshall Islands and the Fukushima nuclear power plants. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union; a foreign member of the Dutch Academy of Sciences; and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2011, he was noted as the top-cited ocean scientist for the decade 2000-2010 by the Times Higher Education. He is currently Director of the Center for Marine and Environmental Radioactivity and founded the citizen-scientists campaign “Our Radioactive Ocean.”

Ari Beser

Getty Images Contributing Photographer, The Economist Media Lab Fellow, Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellow, TEDx Speaker, and photographer and videographer for the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. His thesis film for American University an adaptation of his book ‘The Nuclear Family’, became a semi finalist in the Student Academy Awards. Creator, showrunner and executive producer of the new documentary series ‘A Jewish Life.’ His photo and video work has been published in The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Telegraph, French Vogue, National Geographic, The Culture Trip, The Nation Magazine, PRI’s The World, Radio France, EFE, Spain’s El Diario, Harvard Law School, Huffington Post.

Tim Wong (Taiwan)

Before co-founding FabCafe Taipei and Loftwork Taiwan, Tim has been an urban design practitioner for 7 years and worked on urban design projects across the US, Middle East, and various Asian cities. He graduated from Harvard Graduate School of Design with dual Master degrees in Architecture and Urban Design.

Cesar Harada (Hong Kong)

Cesar Jung-Harada (FR-JP, 1983) Designer. Director of MakerBay, Scoutbots, and Senior Lecturer in Design and Architecture at the University of Hong Kong. TED Senior Fellow, former Researcher & Project Leader at MIT, Ars Electronica Golden Nica Award winner. He holds a Master in Design Interactions from the Royal College of Art and sailed around the world in 2013-2014.

Toshikatsu Watanabe

Resident of Koriyama City, he is a chairman of Fukushima 100 Years Design Committee, established in September 2011. Over the following decade he has planned and presented many related events. Notably, in March 2015 he held a symposium called “Super Presentation in Koriyama“ with SAFECAST, inviting Joi Ito, who was then director of MIT Media Lab. Also he organized a workshop with Ray Ozzie and Safecast, planning a KY project which involves scanning the air of Fukushima with a device Mr. Ozzie developed. It is important for Fukushima and other places to have good measurement of environmental conditions that affect people, such as PM2.5 in the air, as well as radioactivity and the covid 19 virus.

Norio Watanabe

Lives in Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture. After graduating from Nihon University Graduate School of Engineering, he worked as an assistant in engineering at Nihon University. After that, he became a teacher at a private high school in Koriyama city. His home was half destroyed on March 11, 2011. He began developing radiometers in April 2011, producing 6,000 units the same year. He volunteered for safecast in 2012. In July 2013, he was found to have thyroid cancer and underwent surgery in April 2015.

Richard Zajac

Richard Zajac is a 27 year-old Missourian in the U.S. who has spent the last 10 years traveling the world to leverage technology and storytelling to make it a cleaner place and to improve the lives of our citizens. He connected with Safecast in 2011, flying to Japan with two checked bags packed to the brim with badly needed geiger counters. Later he interviewed Jean-Michel Cousteau and in 2012 completed a documentary: The New Hibakusha which profiles the stigmatization of Fukushima residents and their pressing needs.

Tom Gill

Tom Gill is a British social anthropologist and a professor in the Faculty of International Studies at Meiji Gakuin University. Since April 2011 he has been following the fortunes of the inhabitants of Nagadoro, a hamlet within Iitate village which to this day remains closed for habitation due to the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Roundtable Participants

Dan Blumenthal (US, based in Israel)

Dr. Blumenthal has extensive experience in radiological emergency response, nonproliferation, and radiation detection technology. He has been a member of DOE response teams and a program manager at DOE Headquarters. He led the initial DOE response team to Japan following the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident. He currently represents DOE as its Attache to the U.S. Embassy in Israel.

Michiel Van Oudheusden (UK/ Belgium)

Michiel Van Oudheusden is a researcher at Cambridge University working at the intersections of environmental sociology, policy making and digital participation. He studies and facilitates interactions between grassroots citizen science groups and formal institutions, such as public authorities and research communities, with the aim of developing mutually responsive environmental governance approaches. He is affiliated to KU Leuven and a cofounder and coordinator of the FWO-funded Belgian Science, Technology and Society network.

Peter Bossew (Germany)

Having studied physics and maths at the University of Vienna, Peter now works at the German Federal Office for Radiation Protection (Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz) in Berlin. His work has previously focused on radio-ecology, radon, environmental modelling and statistics and risk assessment. Peter has conducted fieldwork in Austria, Ukraine, Japan and Brazil, and is interested in how large data sets can be used as environmental indicators, how to quality assure data and how to overcome challenges regarding data interpretability.

Sophie Knight (UK/Netherlands)

Sophie is a journalist and researcher based in Amsterdam focusing on climate change and the intersection of people, culture and their environment. Her work has been published in The Financial Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The Sunday Telegraph, The Japan Times, and more. In 2020, she wrote a long read about the mental health impact of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Ben Epstein (UK)

Ben is a medical anthropologist at University College London. His current research project Disaster Mental Health: Research and Practice in Japan, traces psychosocial interventions in disaster affected communities following the Great East Japan Earthquake. Ben considers the work of disaster mental health practice from the point of view of experts, exploring the social influences and power dynamics at play.

Ralf Kaiser (Scotland)

Ralf Kaiser is a Professor of Nuclear Physics at the University of Glasgow and Managing Director of
Lynkeos Technology, a start up company that uses cosmic-ray muons to characterise nuclear waste containers. From 2010 to 2017 he served as Head of the Physics Section at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In this function he participated in and led multiple IAEA missions to Fukushima focussing on radiation monitoring and mapping, including a drone-based system that his Section developed for Fukushima prefecture.

Marco Zennaro (Italy)

Marco Zennaro is a research scientist at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, where he coordinates the Science, Technology and Innovation Unit. He has a PhD from KTH-Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, and an MSc in Electronic Engineering from the University of Trieste. He is interested in ICT4D, the use of ICT for Development, and in particular the use of Internet of Things for Development (#IoT4D). He has organized more than 30 training activities on IoT in developing countries and is a Visiting Professor at Kobe Institute of Computing (KIC) in Japan.

Nadja Zeleznik (Slovenia)

Nadja Železnik is a physicist with a Master’s degree in physics and in reactor physics and a Ph.D. in psychology, all from University of Ljubljana. Nadja specialises in nuclear technology and radioactive waste management, including emergency preparedness and response, risk perception and communication. She has over 30 years’ experience in different institutions, often active in supporting nuclear transparency and implementation of Åarhus convention in practice. A member of Nuclear Transparency Watch from its beginning in 2013, she has chaired NTW since 2017.

Sanjoy Mukhopadhyay

Sanjoy Mukhopadhyay is a Senior Principal Scientist at the Remote Sensing Laboratory Andrews (RSLA) Operations of Mission Support and Test Services (MSTS) Inc. As the Emergency Response Data Officer at IAEA, Sanjoy recently worked on development and implementation of a large-scale global radiation measurement database (called: ‘International Radiation Monitoring Information System (IRMIS)’) to provide IAEA Member States a platform to share, visualize and analyze routinely collected and voluntarily provided radiation monitoring data all over the world.

Petr Kuča (Czech Republic)

Petr graduated in 1979 from the Czech Technical University (ČVUT) in Prague, Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering (FJFI), Department of Dosimetry and Application of Ionizing Radiation (KDAIZ). He has worked at SURO, the Czech National Radiation Protection Institute in Prague (https://www.suro.cz/en/) in the field of radiation protection, and emergency preparedness and response, for over 40 years. He was leader of research project RAMESIS (2015-2019) and is now leading CzechRAD (2021-2025). This aims to suppor citizen radiation monitoring in the Czech Republic using Safecast’s bGeigie Nano (RAMESIS) and its "successor" CzechRAD.

Akiba (Japan)

Akiba is a co-founder of Safecast and runs FreakLabs, a company focusing on wildlife and environmental conservation technology, with his partner Jacinta. He’s also a co-founder of Tokyo Hackerspace and Hackerfarm. By trade, he’s an electrical engineer and product designer, but is also searching for the deeper purpose in the technology he designs.

Jan Helebrant (Czech Republic)

Jan Helebrant is a senior researcher in the emergency preparedness section and analytical expert at group department level for the Czech National Radiation Protection Institute (SÚRO) in Prague. He graduated in environmental geology and the management of natural resources from Charles University in Prague. Jan specialises in GIS, mapping and measured data processing and visualization (airborne gammaspectrometry, walking and carborne measurements, citizen science - Safecast / CzechRad) and participation in custom QGIS plugins development.

Joke Kenens (Belgium)

Joke Kenens is a PhD student at the CeSo, KU Leuven, in collaboration with the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre SCK•CEN. Her PhD research is entitled ‘Probing the potential of citizen science in the governance of nuclear incidents, accidents, and post-disaster situations’. it aims to study the concept of citizen science and its development after the Fukushima triple disaster.

Geneviève Beaumont (France)

Geneviève Baumont Destombes is nuclear safety expert, with an interest in communication, education and societal issues, formerly of France’s IRSN (Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety). Her professional career focused on nuclear accidents, first as a nuclear test engineer and then later specialising in societal aspects after an accident. Since meeting Safecast in 2014, Geneviève has been a keen supporter, later encouraging IRSN, universities and high schools to buy and use bGeigie sensors.

Tanja Perko (Belgium)

Tanja Perko holds a PhD in Social sciences in Risk Perception and Risk Communication in Nuclear Emergency Management. She is a senior researcher at SCK CEN and at the University of Antwerp in Belgium. Her interests are societal, communication and risk perception aspects related to ionizing radiation. Tanja is vice-president of SHARE (European platform for social sciences and humanities in ionizing radiation), the main organiser of the RICOMET conferences, and she also consults and lectures for different universities and international organisations.

Gaston Meskens (Belgium)

Gaston Meskens is a researcher in ethics of science and technology and global sustainable development governance. He works part-time with the Science and Technology Studies group of the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre SCK CEN and with the Centre for Ethics and Value Inquiry of the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy of the University of Ghent.

Claire Mays (France)

Claire Mays is a social psychologist, specialized in risk governance & communication, an American and longtime French resident. She has worked as a community or action researcher in almost every country in Europe and in Japan and India. Claire designs and facilitates programs and platforms to support government and civil society organizations, helping them to identify and move toward their goals, to understand and govern risk, and to create agreed recommendations to improve shared quality of life.

Astrid Liland (Norway)

Astrid Liland is a nuclear chemist who is director of Emergency preparedness and response at the Norwegian radiation and nuclear safety authority. She has long experience in the long-term follow-up after the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents. She has participated in numerous seminars, meetings and conferences related to the Fukushima accident and has visited the Fukushima area a number of times.

Musicians

Bruce Huebner

Bruce Huebner has 35 years of study, performance, composition and music production experience in Japan. Trained in western music and jazz in Los Angeles California, Bruce is also the first non-Japanese to graduate from the Tokyo University of Arts and Music in traditional music performance where he studied under National Treasure Yamaguchi Goro. “I want to take the legacy of the Japanese monks who played shakuhachi centuries ago into a new context in my music. I believe This amazing instrument, the shakuhachi, can join in a myriad of settings, from classical to jazz, celtic to Spanish, traditional to modern across the globe. “

Andy Bevan

Andy Bevan was born in South Australia. Along with playing a wide range of woodwind instruments from saxophone to bansuri flute, his association with Australian aboriginal musicians inspired him to play the didjeridoo, the role of which he has expanded into previously unheard-of instrumental combinations. He now resides in Japan, actively performing a broad range of music from jazz and Brazilian to fusion and world music, including the modern world-music trio Tatopani, which has recorded and performed extensively over the past decade.

Chriss Koyama

Chriss Koyama is a Japanese jazz and folk vocalist performing mainly in Tokyo since 2007. Fascinated by musical stars such as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Julie Andrews, and Bette Midler, her love for American jazz and pop standards started at an early age. Studying under Clyde. W. Williams (The Voice Space) in Tokyo, and a few vocal coaches in New York City, she learned the importance of musically and lyrically delivering the message of a song.

Fumika Asari

Born in Fukushima City, Fukushima Prefecture. During high-school days she became addicted to the performances of Grant Green and Jim Hall that she heard at the jazz cafe "Mingus" in Fukushima City. Moved to Tokyo in 2012 to enter university and in 2015, advanced to the final of the Gibson Jazz Guitar Contest. Fumika has a swinging style that in the tradition of the jazz guitar and has performed with many veteran musicians.

Chris Hardy

Christopher Hardy, an American based in Tokyo since 1989, is a highly acclaimed percussionist, composer and educator. Chris has a background in Western percussion from the University of Michigan and is a hand drum specialist whose primary focus is on Middle Eastern, North African, West African, Brazilian and Latin percussion. His solo CD “Touch” (Victor) was voted “Best Popular Album of 2002” . In addition to leading his own group “TGA” he has performed with many artists including Sting, Kazuya Yoshii and UA.

Bob Ward

Bob Ward spent 30 years in New York City playing jazz guitar in groups with Jack McDuff, Warne Marsh, Barry Harris, Bob Rockwell, Steve LaSpina, Tim Ries and Marc Johnson. Being very interested in recording, he opened Current Sounds Studio and consequently worked on many recording projects while specializing in jazz including artists such as MMW, Richie Birach, Benny Golson, John Abercrombie, Moby, Chaka Kahn, John Pizzarelli and Marc Copland. As a composer, Bob has co-written songs for George Benson (including the hit “The Thinker”), Grover Washington Jr. and Ramsey Lewis.

Philip Woo

Philip Woo is a Tokyo based keyboardist, bandleader, composer and recording musician. Born in Seattle Washington, and spent 23 years in New York. Credits include Roy Ayers, Grover Washington Jr., Whitney Houston, Roberta Flack, Cyndi Lauper, Patti Labelle, and Ashford and Simpson. He has appeared on TV with Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, James Ingram, Nancy Wilson, Brandi, Crosby Stills And Nash, Mavis Staples while in Japan worked in close collaboration with top acts Exile, Toshinobu Kubota and Little Gree Monster.

Ashton Moore

Acclaimed American jazz artist and 2010 Thelonius Monk Competition semi-finalist, Ashton was born and raised in Detroit in a musically inclined family. Ashton’s vocal virtuosity is grounded in a healthy respect for the traditions of jazz, blues, gospel, Motown sound and classical music. Currently based in Japan Ashton performs regularly at prestigious venues such as the Body & Soul jazz club as well as jazz festivals throughout Asia. In addition to being a singing educator, Ashton is a member of the popular vocal quartet Sonz of Soul and co-conductor of The Kanagawa Jubilee Chorale.

Gene Jackson

An international solo artist who also has the distinction of becoming the rhythmic linchpin of some of the classic contemporary jazz line-ups from the late 1980s onwards – notably sharing bandstands with Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland and Wayne Shorter – drummer, composer and arranger Gene Jackson needs little introduction to audiences the world over. Though Philadelphia-born and Berklee-educated, the drummer is now based in Japan expanding his artistic vistas even wider amidst the creative melting pot of this bustling metropolis.

Pat Glyn

Originally from Westfield, NJ, Pat Glynn has performed in just about every musical situation imaginable. He's played in 49 states (sorry Utah) and 10 countries. He's played with Sam Rivers and Sigur Ros; for flying cars (Chitty-Chitty, Bang-Bang) and flying ladies (Mary Poppins), although not while flying; for Mickey (mouse that is) and Konishiki. He released his first album as a leader "Who's On Bass" featuring Cyrus Chestnut and Carl Allen in 2014.

Makoto Oka

Born in Tokyo, Japan. At 16 started playing tenor saxophone . Graduated from Hitotsubashi University and started professional career as a jazz player. In 1990 granted a scholarship from Berklee College of Music and moved to Boston. After returning to Japan, have been playing with Saxophobia. In 2013 started Music Mill Project to make original music playing machine driven by watermill. Won a semi grand prize at competition in Kobe Biennale2013

Katrina Gordon

Composer Katrina Gordon was only created thanks to nuclear power: her parents met as co-workers at the Dounreay Nuclear Power Station in Scotland. Katrina studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London and enjoyed a career as an orchestral bassoon player before returning to the far north of Scotland, where in 2012 she co-founded a musical social enterprise, caithnessmusic.com. She recently completed an MSc, examining mindfulness through composition with her dissertation "Seeing the Whole Elephant: Understanding the Nature of Mindfulness"

Emily Beynon

Emily Beynon is principal flute of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam. Born in Wales, she began her flute studies as a junior at the Royal College of Music with Margaret Ogonovsky and then went on to study with William Bennett at the Royal Academy and with Alain Marion in Paris. Equally at home in front of the orchestra as in its midst, Emily performs regularly as concerto soloist and also as chamber musician. She is frequently heard on BBC radio and Classic FM, and has recorded eleven solo discs to date. A passionate and dedicated teacher, Emily is regularly invited to give masterclasses all over the world.(Photo by Eduardus Lee)

Su-a Lee

Born in Seoul, Su-a Lee trained at Chethams School of Music, completing her studies at the Juilliard School in New York. On graduating with her Bachelor’s degree, Su-a moved to Scotland, to join the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, where she remains as Assistant Principal Cello. While she is deeply rooted in her Scottish home, Su-a and her cello have appeared all over the world, from South America to the Arctic Circle. As well as performing in the world’s major concert halls, you are as likely to find them in unorthodox and interesting locations, including Japanese temples, circus tents and waterfalls.

Penny Watson

Penny Watson grew up in Bearsden, near Glasgow. She attended the Music School of Douglas Academy and went on to study Piano at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with Professor Fali Pavri. In 2018 she graduated with First Class Honours and since then has been enjoying a varied freelance career as an accompanist and piano teacher based in Glasgow.

Safecast 10 Team

Iain Darby (Scotland)

Iain is a Physicist & Environmental Specialist in Nuclear Decommissioning & Environmental Remediation. He holds a PhD in Nuclear Physics from the University of Liverpool and held academic appointments in Europe and the United States before joining the IAEA from 2011-2018. Since 2018 has been a Technical Volunteer for Safecast. He is currently based in Scotland where he holds an Honorary Fellowship at the University of Glasgow, sits on the Editorial Board of IoP SciNotes and works full time on UK nuclear decommissioning and remediation projects.

Louise Elstow (UK)

Louise Elstow is an emergency management specialist based in the UK and a social scientist focusing on radiation measuring and monitoring practices. She is particularly interested in how scientific knowledge about radiation contamination is created through devices, methods and standards. Louise is currently juggling writing up her PhD thesis based on fieldwork in Fukushima, Japan, alongside supporting the UK rail industry in the response to COVID and walking the dog.

Catrinel Turcanu (Belgium)

Catrinel Turcanu, PhD, coordinates the Programme for Integration of Social and ethical Aspects into nuclear research, within Belgian Nuclear Research Centre. She has +25 years’ research & training experience in nuclear emergency management, notably decision-support tools, public opinion, risk perception and behaviours, stakeholder engagement. She coordinated H2020 CONCERT-ENGAGE on enhancing stakeholder engagement in radiological protection and led the WP on social aspects of uncertainty management in H2020 CONCERT–CONFIDENCE. She chairs the IAEA MAESTRI project on integrated environmental management.

Pieter Franken (Japan)

Pieter is co-founder of Safecast. His career in Financial Services spans over 25 years, specializing in O&T, Fintech, innovation and large-scale transformations. He has held C-level and executive positions with industry leaders such as Citigroup, Shinsei Bank, Aplus, Monex Securities and Monex Group. Pieter is Senior Advisor to Monex Group and is Vice-Chair of the Alternate Investments Committee (AIC) of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ). He is a member of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) International Technology Advisory Panel (ITAP) and is Board Director at AFIN, a MAS/ABA/IFC co-founded initiative to accelerate Financial Inclusion across Asia and the Middle East. He’s a much looked after advisor and expert speaker on a wide range of topics and is known for providing deep insights pulling from is wide experience in IT, financial services, and innovation management.

Azby Brown (Japan)

Azby Brown is a native of New Orleans, and has lived in Japan since 1985. He is a leading authority on Japanese architecture, design, and environmentalism, and the author of several influential books including The Very Small Home (2005), Just Enough: Lessons in living green from traditional Japan (2010), and The Genius of Japanese Carpentry (2014). Since the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster in March 2011, Azby has been lead researcher for Safecast.

Kelsie Stewart (Japan)

Kelsie is an American based in Tokyo, Japan. As the FabCafe CCO, Kelsie strategizes and aligns Fab synergies to empower everyone to take the initiative to make and share their ideas with local and global communities. Kelsie has been volunteering for Safecast since she joined FabCafe in 2017, supporting their children’s workshop Mirai Summer Camp at Mori Museum, and recently built her first bgeigie in the Safecast Tokyo office.

Emmy Nagaoka

Emmy Nagaoka used to be a foreign news correspondent at TBS, one of the major TV networks in Japan. Inspired by its agility, flexibility, and members’ dedication to make things happen, she made the first coverage of SAFECAST as Japanese media in July 2011 which was broadcasted during the networks’ prime time news programs. Currently she works at a US risk advisory firm where she provides business intelligence to Japanese and multinational companies.

Jun Yamadera

Jun Yamadera founded Eyes, JAPAN co. ltd. in 1995, the first IT startup from the University of Aizu, Fukushima. In the past 20 years, he has been working on various cutting edge projects. He is a TEDxKobe 2015 Speaker. He started a project called “FUKUSHIMA Wheel” in the aftermath of the terrible disaster caused by the earthquake and nuclear accident in Fukushima, JAPAN in March 11, 2011. More than 25 years experience in Cutting Edge Technologies.

Joe Moross

Joe Moross is a Tokyo-based radiation and environmental sensor engineer, and was formerly senior engineer in charge of radiation safety for the linear accelerator facility of the National Institute for Research in Inorganic Materials in Tsukuba.

Kiki Tanaka

Kiki is a writer, translator and coordinator. She started volunteering for SAFECAST in May 2011. She has focussed on connecting SAFECAST to Tohoku residents, supporting data collection, interpretation and translation for Japanese groups with her buddy-girl Nene. She also manages the Japanese group site.

Sean Bonner (Canada)

Sean Bonner is an entrepreneur, publisher, activist, artist and enthusiast with deep focus on community independence and distributed (crowd sourced) actions. In addition to Safecast, he sits on the board of CicLAvia. He previously co-founded Coffee Common and the first hackerspace in Los Angeles, Crash Space. In 2014 he became a Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow and has been a regular contributor to BoingBoing as well as written editorials for MAKE, Al Jazeera and others. Sean was an Artist In Residence at the MuseumsQuartier in Vienna, a Hacker In Residence at Sparkfun in Colorado, and an Entrepreneur In Residence at The Groop in Los Angeles. Previously, as co-founder of Bode Media Inc, Sean helped create Metblogs, the first global network of local media sites. He has been profiled in Cool Hunting and Good Magazine.

Emu Felicitas-Miyashita

PhD researcher at the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) and Humboldt University Berlin. Expertize in Citizen Science and Human Wildlife Conflict. Japan ambassador and community director of CitizenScience.Asia and enthusiastic Safecaster since 2018. Main interest in enforcing and building Citizen Science networks in Japan, Asia and globally.

Rob Oudendijk (Japan)

Goals: Learn to understand life and so: – to contribute to make life for all people better. – not only present but also future generations. – contribute towards resolving conflicts in the world. Experience in chronological order: Learning experience: – Learn from my mother. – learned from nature. – Learned from friends and teachers. –

Jonathan Wilder

Been with Safecast since 2012. Organizes parts and kitting of both b and kGeigies, and has been an inspired catering chef for many Safecast events. Conducted research which resulted in the Seaweed Collection Feasibility Study. Editor for the Safecast blog. Happy to support in any way I can!

Nondo-Jacob Sikazwe

Design services, eat cheesecake and asking questions" are the pillars of Nondo's life. Originally from the southern Africa country of Zambia. He found his way to Japan, where he completed his Masters of Engineering and now helps companies bring their services to a global audience. With an eye for curating projects based on digital services, architecture, and local community-driven projects, he feels right at home with the rest of the gang at Safecast.

Ian Lynam

Ian Lynam works at the intersection of graphic design, design education and design research. He is faculty at Temple University Japan, Vermont College of Fine Arts, WUSTLA, and CalArts. Ian writes for IDEA, (JP), Modes of Criticism (PT), and Slanted (DE). Designer of the 10th Anniversary bGeigie! More: ianlynam.com

Karin Taira (Japan)

Karin Taira is a certified English tour guide based in the nuclear disaster affected areas in Fukushima coastal region/ the B&B inn owner of the Lantern House in Odaka where the evacuation order was lifted in 2016. She started volunteering for SAFECAST in June 2015 from Fukushima side and has been using her b-geigie everytime on the tours with tour guests from more than 50 countries. Born in Tokyo and studied in the UK, once lived in Bangladesh.

Very Special Thanks to our SPONSORS:

Organizations and individuals interested in sponsoring this event, please contact us at: safecast10@safecast.org

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