Takashi Ijichi, Assistant Professor
Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo
June 25, 2026
FUTI Travel Award Report
The primary purpose of this travel was to attend the Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Ocean Mixing in South Hadley, MA, where I was invited to give a talk. This biennial conference brings together world-leading scientists in the field of ocean turbulence and mixing. Participation in this conference was particularly important for my career, as it provided an opportunity to present my research to the international ocean-mixing community, learn about emerging and high-impact research topics, and build professional networks with leading researchers from around the world. In addition, prior to the conference, I visited the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) to discuss opportunities for more focused research collaborations and to receive feedback on my recent work.
On June 8, I arrived in Boston in the evening and stayed overnight in the city.
On June 9, I met Dr. St. Laurent, Senior Scientist at the Applied Physics Laboratory of the University Washington and my former postdoctoral adviser, who lives in the Boston area. I presented my recent observational results on internal waves and turbulence in the Izu-Ogasawara Ridge and received valuable feedback and suggestions for future research directions.
On June 10, I visited MIT to meet with Prof. Akylas in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He is an expert in theoretical fluid mechanics and studies nonlinear interactions of internal waves. I presented my recent observational work and received valuable feedback from a theoretical perspective, which provided new insights into the interpretation of my results.
From June 11 to 13, I stayed in the Woods Hole area and met with Dr. Toole and Dr. Jayne at WHOI. Dr. Toole was particularly interested in my observational results from the Izu-Ogasawara Ridge. We discussed that my findings in the Izu-Ogasawara Ridge may be extended to the Hawaiian Ridge, and he kindly shared with me an observational dataset collected in the Hawaiian Ridge, opening up the possibility of a collaborative analysis to investigate whether similar processes operate in both regions. Dr. Jayne has recently been working with floats equipped with turbulence sensors. We discussed our experiences with turbulence-float observations and explored possible directions for future collaborative research. I also met several friends and former colleagues from my postdoctoral period at WHOI. I was very pleased to reconnect with them and exchange ideas on our current research activities.
From June 14 to 19, I attended the Gordon Research Conference on Ocean Mixing. I presented my talk entitled “From Internal-Wave Triads Down to Isotropic Turbulence Up to Background Stratification: Implications from Observations” in the session “Competing Energy Cascades in Stratified Turbulence and Internal Waves”. This was my first invited conference presentation. To align the presentation with the theme of this session, I organized the talk around the downscale energy cascade driven by internal-wave triad interactions, the finescale parameterization of turbulence inferred from internal-wave fields, and the upscale impact of turbulent mixing through its role in maintaining the background stratification. The discussion following the talk included a number of thought-provoking questions, some of which involved nuanced issues that were challenging for me to address fully in a limited time. The exchange provided a valuable opportunity to reflect more deeply on the broader implications and interpretation of my work. I enjoyed the talks, discussions, and poster sessions throughout the conference. I learned about emerging and high-impact research topics and built professional networks with leading researchers from around the world.
On June 20, I departed from Boston for Japan.
Overall, this trip was highly fruitful. At GRC, I had the opportunity to deliver my first invited conference presentation to the international ocean-mixing community, learn about emerging and high-impact research topics, and build professional networks with leading researchers from around the world. In addition, during my visits to MIT and WHOI, I received valuable feedback from experts and reconnected with colleagues to exchange ideas on our current research activities. I am deeply grateful to FUTI for its generous support, which made this rewarding research exchange possible.
