“I am very much honoured to be given this opportunity to work with the ILC communicators and to be involved in promoting a science project of this scale,” said Misato Hayashida. A fourth ILC communicator has joined the Global Design Effort. Misato Hayashida, based at KEK, will be sharing the Asian communication duties with Rika Takahashi and will closely collaborate with her European colleagues, Perrine Royole-Degieux (CNRS/IN2P3) and Barbara Warmbein (DESY).

Misato Hayashida joins the ILC communication team.

Hayashida graduated from the University of California, Irvine and received her Masters in Physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. After spending six and a half years in the US she returned to Japan to work at the IBM Japan Service Company. Despite her successful carrier as an IT engineer, she found her way to science communication and worked as a volunteer science guide at Osaka Science Museum. “This was when I found myself finally in the right field. When I saw the KEK job posting, I thought 'this is it,'” Hayashida said. “I don't have much experience in writing or editing articles, but I am hoping that my physics background will be of help.”

Her first encounter with the ILC was a translation assignment for KEK's communicator position. “The assignment was about the InterAction collaboration meeting held at KEK. I was impressed that the communication officials from the particle physics and accelerator laboratories worldwide are working together,” said Hayashida. “It will be such an honour for me to be able to contribute in the promotion of science through this job.”

As an ILC communicator, she will write stories for ILC NewsLine and take care of general communication business – making sure that colleagues, decision makers and eventually the public will be well aware of the exciting studies and results in the ILC community. She will also be responsible for translating and editing KEK's English web site. Make sure you meet her in person at TILC09!

-- Rika Takahashi