Message From the President
Since their initial report by an anonymous English gentleman in 1703, diatoms have been studied throughout Europe. Although the history of Japanese diatom research is shorter, our studies have developed rapidly over the past half century.Every scientific field progresses in relation to the frequency and velocity of information available during its history. Diatomology is not an exception to this pattern. In 1979, 86 Japanese diato mists specializing in the fields of biology and geology organized our society and had its first meeting in t he following year. Membership in the society increased gradually,　and our journal Diatom vol. 1 was published in 1985. This was 1 year before the International Society for Diatom Research published its first Diatom Research volume.
In the 21st century, worldwide diatom research has developed greatly and diatomists employ many new techniques. Now in addition to conventional investigations of valve morphology, cellular studies utilizing molecular analysis are common place and statistical analyses are frequently used by many researchers due to increased computational power and user friendly so ware packages. Additionally, society members work with diatoms from localities outside Japan and collaborate with colleagues to investigate questions beyond the scope of traditional diatoms studies. As this intellectual maturation has occurred, classic studies of type material, floristic analyses, etc. continue to serve as a foundation for our field. Continued works with collaborative floristic investigations in Asia are critical as our knowledge of taxonomy, geological distribution, speciation, evolution, and other biological process is still limited.
Diatoms are the subject of both basic and applied scientific investigations. Today, effective information transfer and communication is required more than ever before. In response to this demand for information, the Japanese Society of Diatomology will provide public access to electronic versions of Diatom articles via J-STAGE* from 2013. High resolution photographs have been the standard in Diatom since volume 27, and the journals format was increased in size to accommodate more dynamic figure and table layouts from this volume.
Membership in our society remains open to anyone who is fascinated by diatoms. Our efforts to provide high-quality information to the global community promise further developments in diatom research. This impact will be realized in Japan and throughout the world, especially Asia.
*J-STAGE https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/diatom The last two volumes need a pass word to access, which is distributed to the society members every year. Non-member can purchase each article in these issues by credit card payment.
| E-mail: president@diatomlogy.org |