In what may be an unprecedented level of cooperation three local universities will host a symposium March 3 through 5 at which the three winners of the prestigious Kyoto Prize will discuss their groundbreaking works in basic science, advanced technology and the arts.

George McClelland Whitesides

The laureates, astrophysicist Eugene Newman Parker of the University of Chicago, nanotechnologist George McClelland Whitesides of Harvard University and bunraku puppet master Tamao Yoshida of Osaka, Japan, each received a gold medal and $400,000 during ceremonies Nov. 10 in Kyoto, Japan.

When they reassemble in San Diego, the 2003 Kyoto Prize winners not only will discuss their works and hear other lecturers in their fields, they will be feted by San Diegans awakened to the opportunities and prestige that close association with the Kyoto Prize may bring to this region.

Organizers Malin Burnham and Tom Fat say association with the Kyoto Prizes burnishes San Diego’s reputation as an international city.

The Kyoto Prizes are considered by many academics to be surpassed only by the Nobel Prizes in distinction, and, in fact, several Kyoto Prize laureates have gone on to win Nobel Prizes.

Industrialist Kazuo Inamori established the prize in 1984, a quarter century after founding Kyoto Ceramics Co., which became known as Kyocera. Famous for non-conductive housings for semiconductors, the growing Japanese concern established its American headquarters in San Diego in 1971, where it has remained. The international company expanded into the manufacture of electronics devices, photovoltaic systems, artificial gemstones, biomedical devices, and the operation of Japan’s second largest telephone company.

In support of its semiconductor operations, Kyocera also established a maquiladora operation in Tijuana in 1989.

In 1996, Inamori was the commencement speaker at USD and the recipient of an honorary doctorate in humane letters. Inamori, in turn, invited then USD President Alice Hayes to attend the Kyoto Prize ceremonies in Japan.

After attending several such ceremonies, Hayes persuaded Inamori to create the Kyoto Laureate Symposium on the USD campus, on a three-year trial basis, beginning in 2002. Hayes told Inamori that his emphasis on conservation and world peace would find a natural ally at USD’s new Joan Kroc Center for Peace and Justice.

Inamori, who spent time at a Buddhist Monastery after his retirement as chairman of Kyocera Corp., was attracted by the confluence of Buddhist and Catholic ethics, Hayes says.

Although the subsequent symposia featuring the laureates of 2001 and 2002 drew attendees from the USD campus and some members of the surrounding community, the high-level academic gatherings received relatively scant media attention. Disappoint-ed, Inamori said he might move the symposium somewhere else if it continued to generate so little interest in San Diego.

Stephanie Kellems of the Alarus Agency told restaurateur Tom Fat about the possibility of San Diego losing this connection to an internationally known award, and Fat, in turn, contacted insurance and real estate mogul Malin Burnham, for help.

Eugene Newman Parker

Before Burnham committed himself to the effort, he wanted assurances that the symposium would remain in San Diego for at least another year, and possibly longer, if the community mobilized in its behalf. Inamori gave such assurances to Don McGraw, USD’s associate provost, at the Kyoto Prize ceremonies at which Parker, Whitesides and Yoshida were presented their prizes.

Thus satisfied, Burnham persuaded SDSU President Stephen Weber and UCSD Acting Chancellor Marsha Chandler to involve their campuses in the programming, and to lend the weight of their respective mailing lists to the marketing effort.

McGraw says the intercollegiate cooperation extended even further, with various private universities, community colleges and Mexican institutions of higher learning joining in the outreach efforts as well as in planning the symposium program.

Weber describes Burnham as a visionary who sees San Diego as a growing force on the Pacific Rim. Magnifying the activity level in San Diego and Tijuana on behalf of the Kyoto Prizes seems a logical adjunct pursuit for Burnham.

The SDSU president notes the three universities have cooperated in various activities, but never in such a focused effort as the joint sponsorship of the symposium. He says universities often create bilateral degree programs, in which students may take course work at either institution, but that this symposium raises the possibility of multilateral degree programs.

Jim Langley, UCSD’s vice chancellor for external relations, agrees multilateral degree programs such as those that already exist in Massachusetts are possibilities. He also believes greater cooperation among the Inamori Foundation and the three universities is possible in related areas.

Burnham suggests Inamori “might be interested in furthering his philosophy of peace and justice and conservation in the world, and San Diego could be another mountaintop from which to shine that beacon. Certainly America consumes more natural resources than any other place in the world, and this would be a place to have on a full-time basis an Inamori Institute that could employ some scholars specializing in these subjects. He’s doing it now in Japan; how about linking it to the United States and having another base, or another platform?”

With such goals in mind, organizers plan two major events prior to the symposium to help increase awareness of the symposium’s importance. First, on the UCSD campus at 11:45 a.m. March 3, the UCSD Medal will be conferred upon Inamori, whose Inamori Foundation underwrites the Kyoto Prize.

At 5:30 p.m., a black tie reception and gala will be held at the Manchester Grand Hyatt. Qualcomm Inc., which in 1999 sold its cellular phone division to Kyocera, is the evening’s title sponsor, and other companies like Manpower Inc., which handles Kyocera’s local needs for temporary workers, also have taken sponsorships.

From the proceeds, organizers plan to fund six $10,000 scholarships for San Diego and Tijuana high school students to pursue college studies in the three fields honored by the Kyoto Prizes: basic science, advanced technology and art and philosophy.

The formal symposium will begin March 4 with a luncheon on the SDSU campus when UCSD professors Charles Kennel and Peter Wolynes pay tribute to the works of Parker and Whitesides. Parker is renowned for his work on the solar wind that blows toward earth while Whitesides is best known for his research on self-assembling organic molecules for nanotechnology.

The laureates will be presented formally at a 1:30 p.m. ceremony at SDSU’s Smith Recital Hall, where Weber, Chandler and USD President Mary E. Lyons will speak and the inaugural six Kyoto Youth Scholar Discovery Awards will be presented.

From SDSU, the symposium then will move to its original home on the USD campus for presentations by Whitesides and Parker at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice. There, Stephen Berry of the University of Chicago and Edward C. Stone of Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will make presentations concerning accomplishments in basic science and advanced technology.

Tamao Yoshida

Events of March 5 in USD’s Shiley Theatre include a presentation by the Icarus Puppet Co. in honor of laureate Tamao Yoshida, and a lecture by author Barbara Adachi on bunraku puppetry.

At the ceremonies, Tamame Yoshida will represent the 85-year-old laureate, who was declared in 1997 to be one of Japan’s “living national treasures.” A demonstration of the three-quarter life-sized puppets handled by black-clothed masters will precede the symposium’s formal closing ceremonies.

Two San Diegans are Kyoto Prize winners: Salk Institute biologist Sydney Brenner won in 1990 and Scripps oceanographer Walter H. Munk in 1999. Whitesides, although not a San Diegan, has an affiliation with Scripps as a member of its scientific advisory board. He also serves on the board of scientific governors of Diversa, a biotech based in San Diego.

Munk is a member of the growing host committee for the pre-symposium gala, along with the mayors of San Diego and Tijuana, several members of Congress, former California Gov. Pete Wilson, representatives of various universities, colleges and educational institutions, and (as a matter of disclosure) publisher Gary Shaw of San Diego Metropolitan magazine.