Matt Ikari

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This transcript is based on a video-recorded interview deposited at MarE3, JAMSTEC (Yokosuka, Japan).

The transcripts of the research project Oral Histories of Scientific Ocean Drilling are polished representations of oral conversations, and are intended solely for the purpose of preserving and documenting personal accounts and memories. They are not a literary product, and are not intended to exhibit literary qualities.

The primary goal of this transcript is to capture the spoken words and memories of the interviewee as accurately as possible. Minor editing and polishing works have been performed to enhance clarity and readability while maintaining the authenticity of spoken discourse, including non-standard grammar, inconsistencies, repetitions, and pauses.

The reader must be aware that memories of an event can vary between individuals and may evolve over time due to various factors, such as subsequent experiences, interactions with others, and personal emotions.

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Interview of Matt Ikari by Beatriz Martinez-Rius and Lisa Smith on 2024 September 26, D/V Chikyu, Japan. [link]

Beatriz Martinez-Rius (BMR): Today is September 26 of 2024, and I’m with Matt onboard Chikyu, Expedition 405. Can you please introduce yourself?

Matt Ikari (MI): My name is Matt Ikari. I’m a research scientist at Marum, at the University of Bremen. I’m onboard in this Expedition as a physical properties specialist.

BMR: Can you explain for someone who doesn’t know about sciences what you are doing here?

MI: My onboard job is to measure physical properties. That’s things like density, porosity, elastic properties… And those are useful for quantifying the sediments because ultimately, we want to know how the sediments behave mechanically. Then, we use that for research after the cruise, to learn about stresses in the Earth and about earthquakes, specifically large earthquakes in this area.

BMR: Why did you decide to study Earth Sciences?

MI: Well, I started actually as a mechanical engineer in undergraduate, and I was terrible at it. I almost failed at school, so I needed a change. And, fortunately, University of Rochester – where I did my undergraduate – had a major called Geomechanics, which is half engineering and half geology. So, I had already done the engineering part. Then, I moved to geology, and that was a lot more interesting, a lot more intuitive, and a lot more fun, actually.

BMR: What kind of things do you like about geology?

MI: I like how it makes sense. A lot of the concepts about it are pretty intuitive and really easy to imagine. So, if you’re doing physics or engineering, you don’t always think about why these things are happening, or why they make sense. You just pull some equation out of a book, you get the number, and then that’s it, right? Geology, I think, is for people who like to really understand the whole picture of what’s going on.

BMR: Was someone in your family a scientist, or is there someone who influenced you in that direction?

MI: Scientists, no. My father is an electrical engineer so, I guess that’s why I started as an engineer. But as a real scientist, nobody is really an actual scientist.

BMR: So you are the first scientist in the family.

MI: You could say that, yeah.

BMR: How did you know about scientific ocean drilling, for the first time?

MI: One of my PhD advisors is Demian Safer. He’s, as you know, a big deal in scientific ocean drilling. And he has been involved with ocean drilling for a long, long time. He was on some of the older ODP expeditions. So, it was actually quite easy for me to get involved that way.

BMR: What was your first expedition, then?

MI: The first expedition was IODP 322 to the Nankai Trough, to drill the input site. Seaward of the trench, there.

BMR: At what stage of your career were you, then?

MI: At the time, I was a fourth year PhD student.

Matt during his first expedition, IODP 322 to the Nankai Trough. JAMSTEC/IODP.

BMR: So, were you thrown into the Japan area without knowing anything about it?

MI: I knew a little bit about it. Damien had gotten some samples from IODP Expedition 316, and I worked with those samples in the lab at Penn State. Actually, I had gone to a post-cruise meeting for Expedition 316, even though I hadn’t been on board. The post-cruise meeting was in Kyoto. So, I was a little bit familiar with the project; but yes, that was my first time on board.

BMR: What do you remember about the expedition?

MI: What do I remember about the expedition? Mostly the people. The scientists’ group was really good. Everybody got along really well. And, even on that first expedition, I sat the whole time in the lounge, I never sat at a desk (laughs). So I could just hang out and talk to people. That’s what I remember most about the expedition; not the technical details.

BMR: And how did you continue related to scientific ocean drilling, after that first expedition?

MI: It was just kind of a natural continuation. So, I had the samples from Nankai and I had been working on them. And after that, at the time I was finishing my Ph.D., that’s when the J-FAST expedition was coming into existence. Because I finished my PhD in 2010, and then the Tohoku earthquake occurred in 2011. Then, J-FAST was in 2012. The timing was maybe lucky, I guess, so I could just slide from the Nankai Trough over to the Japan Trench.

BMR: I imagine that when you went to J-FAST you were a more skilled scientist than in your first expedition. Do you think there was a difference in your work onboard?

MI: No, there wasn’t much of a difference, actually, because the expeditions themselves are all pretty similar. And, in the jobs that you do, in your onboard duties, and your on board life. So, the daily shipboard life wasn’t very much different from Expedition 322.

BMR: Could you explain how one day onboard looks like, for you?

MI: Well, (laughs) that depends a lot on where you are at, that one day can vary a lot. It depends on how the expedition is going and the schedule, because you could have a day like, let’s say today, where you are doing… Nothing? (laughs) And you can work on your own work, or hang around, or go watch the sunset, or whatever. But there’s also days where you’re getting a lot of cores and you spend your whole shift working and maybe even after the shift, and you were just busy, busy, busy the whole time. So, there’s a big range, actually.

BMR: We just mentioned that you’ve been on five expeditions.

MI: Yes.

BMR: What do you like the most about being at sea, in IODP?

MI: There’s a lot of things to like about it. I like being part of the community. I like being onboard with a group of scientists with a good mix, because a lot of people that go onboard are really big names. You read all the reports and the articles and you think, “Oh my God, this is some sort of a big name, big deal”. And then, when you get on board, you learn that they’re normal people. And I think that’s great.

 I also like the idea that it’s a bigger project, and you’re working on something important, right? We’re out here, working on this, because of the Tohoku earthquake – this huge earthquake with terrible consequences. It’s a lot different than going somewhere and digging up sand from your backyard and doing something with that. So, I like the idea that it’s somehow important.

BMR: You will be onboard for two months. What are the things that you find more difficult or challenging, the downside of being at sea?

MI: I guess that the downside is that it’s constant. You’re here, on board, you can’t get off the ship, you can’t escape, let’s say – not that it’s a prison or something – but, you’re just here, right? And if you’re in a bad mood or something, you have to deal with it. And if somebody else is in a bad mood, you have to deal with that, too. If the drilling isn’t going well, you have to take it. So, you really have to accept everything that comes. And that’s not always easy for anybody, actually.

BMR: Yes, especially for long periods of time. So, I’d like to ask you about these five expeditions you’ve been onboard. Can you walk us through the different roles you had?

MI: Usually my role is exactly what I’m doing right now. It’s just doing physical properties. Sometimes that involves being the team leader – which is not as important as it sounds, is just the guy who has some experience. If there’s somebody new, like a PhD student, you can say, “Okay, this is what to look out for”. But usually PhD students are smart enough. They can figure everything out by themselves, anyway. So, being the team leader isn’t such a big deal. Mostly it’s important for writing the reports and things like that, and making sure the numbers are not totally wrong and it’s okay. So, usually I’m doing things like that or just being normal phys props (physical properties expert). I did one expedition as co-chief, and that was different, of course. But even that was… These expeditions are very well planned out, so there wasn’t a lot of room to do a big screw up. I don’t think so.

BMR: Let’s focus on the expedition you were co-chief.

MI: Yes.

BMR: How does your perspective on the expedition change, being part of the scientific party or being the co-chief?

MI: iit does change, but it’s not as… Personally, I don’t think it’s as big of a deal as it sounds like. Like I said, the biggest challenge is the planning, right? So there’s a lot of planning that goes on before. So, you have to know – well, you don’t necessarily have to know, but you have to kind of understand how the procedures work, and… The important thing for me was to have a sort of decision tree, where if X happens, then we do Y, if that doesn’t happen, you do go to Z, etcetera. So, there’s like a planning kind of aspect to it.

Most of it is actually communication. You have to tell the scientists what’s going on. If you’re in the science party, you don’t necessarily have to do that. You can just sit there and wait for someone to tell you what’s going on, and then it’s fine. But if you’re a co-chief, you have to know what’s going on because people are going to ask you about that, and then you also have to keep knowing what’s going on, so you can make these – I don’t want to say decisions because the decisions are kind of limited. You don’t have so much freedom because the decisions are very carefully laid out from the beginning… But you do have to be able to understand and prioritize the goals of the expedition, and then make the best decisions that you can.

Matt working with the cores during IODP Expedition 405, onboard Chikyu. ©️Doriane Letexier / JAMSTEC / IODP

BMR: I was thinking of the fact that, in your last expedition, you were co-chief. And now you are back at the science party. Does it somehow change the way you see the role of the co-chiefs and the expedition, having had the experience of being there?

MI: A little bit, but not so much. Because if you know that you’re in the science party as, let’s say, a normal scientist, it’s not that hard to just revert back to that kind of mindset of, “Okay, I have my job. I can sit here and have somebody tell me what I’m supposed to do, and then I just go and do it”, and that’s okay. I mean, of course it’s not just that you have to do some interpretation and put your $0.02 in on what you think is happening, as all the scientists have to. But in the back of your mind, you kind of maybe know a little bit more about how things are running. So, it really depends on your personality, I guess. For me, what I don’t want to do is to act like I’m co-chief, right? Because I’m not. Marianne (Conin) and Khotaro (Ujiie), they are the co-chiefs and they do a great job. And I don’t have to do that. So, I don’t like to go around telling everybody, you know, this, this, this and that. I can keep that to myself. But, you know, I do sort of have a better idea of what’s going on. So, actually, maybe I don’t feel so lost as I did in my first expedition.

BMR: Right. And in relation to that, maybe you can explain some examples of how you can mentor early career scientists. I mean, I’m just asking you because you have been in that place before.

MI: I mean, theoretically yes. But, like I said, that’s also a personality thing. Everybody does it differently. Some people really like to go to the young people and really want to tell them everything they know, and things like that. I personally don’t like to do that because I think that gets overwhelming, sometimes. If somebody wants to ask me something, I’ll answer anything somebody wants to know. But, I think it’s more important to instead of heaping it on them like that, to be accessible so they can ask you if they want to or need to.

BMR: What is the most valuable thing, or learning, you take out from your participation in scientific ocean drilling?

MI: I’d say there’s two things. One is how important it is to be part of a team, and how important people’s personalities are, and how to deal with that. It’s more of a social thing than the scientific thing.

And the other thing is how important planning is for these expeditions, for these projects. I think there’s a lot of problems that could be avoided with very careful planning that doesn’t always get done. A lot of times they do get done. Most of these expeditions are very, like I said, very, very well planned. But planning is very important.

BMR: And this will be my last question. Where do you see yourself in the future, in relation to scientific ocean drilling?

MI: Of course, if it continues, I would like to be involved. The thing is that a lot of it just isn’t up to me. A lot of it depends on funding, and that’s hot right now, and things like that. Right now people seem to be more interested in things like climate, geothermal, carbon capture and things like this. And so, if there isn’t the interest or the drive for people to do scientific ocean drilling for natural hazards, then it’s hard to keep that going. And then you’re kind of fighting an uphill battle, right? But as long as that’s going and people push for its importance – and I guess that’s also what we have to do to keep it going –, as long as it keeps going, I’d like to be involved, of course.

BMR: Thank you.

MI: Yes, no problem.