Name: Takashi Suzuki

Ex-shipbroker/investment consultant for shipping business. Retired from the business in 2002. Since them, I have been primarily a freelance, self-employed scientific and technical translator.  I also do a bunch of side businesses such as tour guiding, web design, science tutoring, and local history and science lectures. ◆ I love beauty in theory. The field of my interest: anything (physics, chemistry, mathematics) related to a system and space (giving us some energy and dimensional rationale). I am so grateful  for online lectures offered by various universities or research institutes - especially, those offered by MIT open courseware. The linear algebra lectures of Professor Strang of MIT was really an eye-opener for me (for the essence of linear algebra, see this recitation for MIT graduate students). I was impressed with the beauty of linear algebra, which elegantly describes the dimension (of a vector space, for instance) in such a way that we cannot perceive in a normal 3D sense. ◆ My hobby is local history. It started from a fun lecture I gave to Judy and her friends on the history of kitamaebune sea routes and how it is related to the prosperity of early modern Sakata, and  ended up with my tour guide-interpreter license. The lecture topics have gradually expanded and now include the history of Shonai Han (the former domain containing present Tsuruoka and Sakata) in the days of Bakumatsu (the final years of the Edo period - very end of the feudal Japan), Dewa Shugendo (local 1,400-year-old mountain worship -influenced by Esoteric Buddhism), and medieval civil war in southern Tohoku (before the unification of the early-modern feudal Japan). Additionally, I also made local science lectures such as  the microbiology of sake and other fermented foods and the geology of Mt. Chokai and Tobishima Island. I enjoy giving these lectures to visitors from abroad and those who are studying tour-guiding. 

EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS

Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada - B Sc. (Double major) Physics & Mathematics

• Awarded a Dalhousie University In-course Scholarship (equivalent to half tuition),

• On the Dean's List,

• Passed the first-stage entrance exam for a medical school in Japan at the end of my second year in Dalhousie, but did not take the second-stage exam and interview, as I chose to pursue my interest in physics and math;

• Scientific educational trajectory: Life Science → Chemistry → Physics → Physics and Mathematics. 

Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Tokyo, Japan - BA (Major) French

WORK  EXPERIENCE

Freelance Translator of Scientific Documents, English-Japanese Interpreter, etc.  2002 - 

• The above period includes interruptions due to university education (Sept., 2003-May, 2007).

NISSHO IWAI CORPORATION      - 2002

• Worked as a shipbroker/investment consultant for shipping business, 

• Worked as one of the representatives in Oslo, Norway for four years, and the rest in Tokyo；

• My expertise: chartering, sales and purchase of secondhand ships (negotiation, preparation of delivery and registration documents, and closing), export contract of newbuilding ships, registration, loan agreements, and structured finance.

SKILLS

Computing 

• Programming skills in Python, Java, Matlab, Maple, Minitab, and Labview;

• Good knowledge of MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint or OpenOffice's equivalents;

• Web design.

Languages (other than English)

• A reasonable understanding of written French. My understanding of spoken French pretty much depends on the subject (I find scientific stuff easier for me to follow);

• A very basic understanding of conversational Norwegian,

• My first language: Japanese.

Shipping business

• Galbraith's Shipping Course at Ashridge Management College, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, UK - diploma.

Tourism

• JTB Innovative Inbound Tour Program Awards 2021,

• Required guide-interpreter training by institutions authorized by the Japan Tourism Agency - diploma (May 4, 2021), 

• Required guide-interpreter training by the Japan Tourism Agency - diploma (Sep 17, 2018).

Driving

• Full clean Japanese and Norwegian driver's license.

Past Education

Here is the list of textbooks which I used in Dalhousie University (except Computational Science and Engineering by Gilbert Strang and The Feynman Lectures on Physics Vol I/II/III). If you are having difficulty in understanding these materials, I can help you with my science tutoring service.

Mathematics

• Gilbert Strang, Computational Science and Engineering

• Riley et al., Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering, 3rd Ed.

• Boas, Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences, 3rd Ed.

• Burden, Numerical Analysis, 7th Ed.

• Poole, Linear Algebra - a Modern Introduction, 2nd Ed.

• Lay, Linear Algebra and its Applications, 3rd Ed.

• Lipschutz, Outline Linear Algebra, 3rd Ed.

• Nagle et al., Fundamentals of Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems, 4th Ed.

• James Stewart, Multivariable Calculus, 2nd Ed.

• James Stewart, Single Variable Calculus, 2nd Ed.

• Taylor, An Introduction to Error Analysis, 2nd Ed.

• Moore, Introduction to the Practice of Statistics, 4th Ed.

Computer Science 

• Savitch, An Introduction to Computer Science & Programming, 3rd Ed.

Physics

• Dunlap, An Introducton to the Physics of Nuclei and Particles

• Townsend, A Modern Approach to Quantum Mechanics

• Thornton, Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems, 5th Ed.

• Calkin, Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Mechanics

• Simpson, Introductory Electronics for Scientists and Engineers, 2nd Ed.

• Griffiths, Introduction to Electrodynamics, 3rd Ed. 

• Richard Feynman et al., The Feynman Lectures on Physics Vol I/II/III

• Serway, Modern Physics, 3rd Ed.

• Walker, Physics, 2nd Ed.

Chemistry

• White, Properties of Materials

• Laidler et al., Physical Chemistry, 4th Ed.

• Miessler, Inorganic Chemistry, 3rd Ed.

• Paula Yurkanis Bruice, Organic Chemistry, 4th Ed.

• Hill & Petrucci, General Chemistry, 3rd Ed.

Biology

• Albert et al., Molecular Biology of the Cell, 4th Ed.  （『細胞の分子生物学』 ニュートンプレス 原著）

• Lodish et al., Molecular Cell Biology, 5th Ed. （『分子細胞生物学』 東京化学同人 原著）

• Russell, i Genetics

• Campbell & Reece, Biology, 6th Ed.

Publication

• Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Ed. （『APA論文作成マニュアル』 医学書院 原著）

• Pechenik, A Short Guide to Writing about Biology, 5th Ed.