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Imperial Order for Matthias Kleiner
WSS Scientific Advisory Board member Professor Matthias Kleiner has recently been awarded one of the highest honours conferred by the Imperial House of Japan: the Order of the Rising Sun.
Established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji, the Order of the Rising Sun is Japan’s oldest official decoration. The order is bestowed on academics, diplomats, military officers and politicians in recognition of their exceptional contributions to Japanese culture and society. This year, Professor Matthias Kleiner was selected to receive the distinguished award. Kleiner, who is a member of the Werner Siemens Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board, received the “Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star”, which is the second-highest class.
Matthias Kleiner was honoured for his work to promote academic exchange and mutual respect between Germany and Japan. “I have many, long-standing contacts with Japan, and I’ve visited the country at least thirty times in the past thirty years,” he says.
Diverse cooperation projects
During his tenure as president of the German Research Foundation (DFG), Kleiner set various accents in the area of research cooperation between the two countries. For instance, he set up a DFG office in Tokyo that remains a key point of contact for German researchers in Japan as well as for Japanese researchers with ties to Germany. In addition, Kleiner, who also served as president of the Leibniz Association, has launched diverse cooperation projects with Japanese funding organisations—including collaborative research centres.
In his role as DFG president, Matthias Kleiner offered hands-on support to the forum Science and Technology in Science (STS forum) established twenty-two years ago in Kyoto—and he continues to sit on the forum’s board of directors. “The STS forum is basically a Davos for science,” Kleiner explains. “Up to 1500 high-ranking experts from science and technology meet in Kyoto every year during the first week of October.” Over time, he built up and strengthened relations with research organisations in Japan, and he was—and remains—a member in various advisory boards and evaluation committees.
Audience with the Emperor
In May, Kleiner travelled to Tokyo to receive the Order of the Rising Sun. He relates how the ceremony was organised down to the last detail: “We received precise instructions on what to wear, the rules of conduct involved in arriving by limousine—and where and when we were expected to bow.” The award recipients were welcomed by the Japanese prime minister and his chief cabinet secretary, who presented them with a box containing the medal.
In a separate room, the insignia of the Order was then removed from the box and placed around the necks of the honourees. “They double- and triple-checked everything to make sure there were no mistakes,” Kleiner says with a smile. This was followed by the absolute highlight: an audience with the Emperor of Japan. Kleiner adds that only five non-Japanese took part in this year’s ceremony, and that the Emperor spoke mainly in Japanese, but also said a few words of congratulations in English. Afterwards, the STS forum organised a reception for Kleiner.
Recognition for years of service
Matthias Kleiner is highly pleased with the honour. “To me, the medal is a wonderful recognition for what I’ve achieved.” Indeed, Kleiner looks back on an illustrious career for which he also received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany First Class in 2010, already during his term as DFG president.
Hubert Keiber, chair of the Foundation Board of the Werner Siemens Foundation has also expressed his pleasure. “We on the Foundation Board warmly congratulate Matthias Kleiner—and we, too, feel honoured,” Keiber says. “In many ways, the Order of the Rising Sun confirms the competence and prestige of the Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board.”
