Professor Olav Slaymaker is Emeritus Professor, University of British Columbia. He is one of the most famous geomorphologists in the world because he is not only a distinguished geomorphologisit but he also has served the international geomorphological society; by helping to organize and chair the Commission on Field Experiments in Geomorphology of the International Geographical Union (IGU) and to found the International Association of Geomorphologists (IAG), of which he served as an executive committee member since 1989 and President (1997-2001).
Professor Slaymaker ‘s main consistent research interest has been on the drainage basin as a fundamental physical unit for understanding landform development. He has been engaged in the study of mountain environments on the basis of the field researches mainly in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia, Canada. This finally lead to “the international conference on sediment and geochemical budgets in geomorphology to honour Professor Olav Slaymaker” on the occasion of his retirement at the University of British Columbia in 2004.
Professor Slaymaker has also served to the progress of the Japanese Geomorphological Union (JGU) continuously since its establishment. His first contact with JGU was August in 1980, when he visited Japan for joining the meeting of the IGU Commission on Field Experiment in Geomorphology held in Kyoto as the secretary of the commission. The meeting was organized by core members of the early JGU. Just before the meeting, the 1st JGU general assembly was held on August 24, 1980, when he was the first guest speaker, addressing a lecture entitled “Field experimental in geomorphology a case study in Canada”, and became a member of the JGU. Since then, he has consistently contributed to the JGU and he was given the Certificate of Merit of the Japanese Geomorphological Union at the 10th anniversary meeting of JGU held in 1989.
His special contribution to the JGU was to make the 5th ICG in Tokyo (2001) successful as President of IAG. He kindly visited Japan in summer, 2000 to discuss the preparation of the 5th ICG with members of the organizing committee.
Thus the great development of the JGU is in his debt.
The JGU is honored to award Professor Olav Slaymaker an Honorary Member.
On May 14, 2005, the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the JGU, at Fukuoka.
Writer: Kenji Kashiwaya
TJGU 26:356-357
2005年5月14日推戴
一般社団法人 日本地形学連合 