Starting between 

Oct 2021-Mar 2022

Starting between 

Apr-Sep 2022

Faculty Research Interests and Project Information

Click here for more information on Research Activities at OIST.

The topic of the project will be determined according to the research interest of the intern. Examples of research projects are: comparative genomics of termites, coevolution between termites and the intracellular parasites Wolbachia and Cardinium, coevolution between termites and their gut prokaryotes.

1. Social dilemmas and governance of common goods
2. Biodiversity dynamics and speciation
3. Sustainable fisheries management and fishing-induced evolution
4. Systemic risk and network dynamics
5. Evolutionary community ecology and eco-evolutionary vegetation dynamics
6. Adaptive dynamics theory and models
7. Simplifying spatial complexity
8. Disease ecology and evolution

Projects in computational neuroscience and brain-inspired artificial intelligence.

Theory, simulation, and simple experiments focused on physical and biological processes with interesting geometrical or topological features, including the formation of holes during the growth of the "Swiss cheese plant" (genus monstera), the water driven erosion of stone, the formation of ridges and cracks on the bark of growing trees, and the healing of punctured soap films.

1.  swarm robotics to study the self-organization of social complexity;
2.  human-computer interaction studies to investigate how digital technology becomes incorporated   into our behavior;
3.  EEG hyperscanning experiments to study the neural underpinnings of social interaction;
4.  sensory substitution studies to investigate the dynamics of perceptual learning.

1.  computational neuroscience models of cognitive function.
2.  mathematical/biological mechanisms of learning.
3.  analysis of neural activity data for exploring neural code.

Projects related to genomics and evolutionary cell biology of diverse symbioses (in deep sea protists, insects, corals, etc.) are available depending on interests of the intern.

Development of organic glow-in-the-dark systems including organic synthesis and optical measurements.

Various experimental projects related to electrons on liquid helium (see Unit website for research details).

Project involves training in animal surgery, in vivo two-photon imaging, and/or data analysis dependent on the interest and background of the applicant. Applicants who might want to join the OIST Graduate Program in the field of Neuroscience are specifically encouraged to apply.

Vincent Laudet

Different projects on enzymes evolution and design, e.g. protein engineering for biocatalysis or reconstruction of ancient folds. Requires some experience in organic chemistry or molecular biology or biochemistry.

pi-Conjugated Polymers Unit

The Marine Biophysics Unit seeks research interns in Ocean Modeling, Coastal Oceanography, and related fields.

Projects are available in exotic magnetic 2D materials growth and characterizations. 

For details see unit website.Longer-stay is preferred.

1. Research projects on energy storage materials and devices (e.g. Li ion batteries).
2. Research projects on energy harvesting materials and devices (e.g. solar cells).

• Computational analysis of cephalopod behavior 
• Tissue clearing and light sheet imaging of cephalopod brains

Projects in epigenome analysis of plant genomes.

Theoretical projects exploring different aspects of quantum materials, condensed matter and statistical physics. Projects may be analytic or numerical in nature, and will be tailored to individual students, depending on their previous experience.

Projects in Foundations of Analysis, in Partial Differential Equations and Modeling, in Foundations of Harmonic Analysis, as well as others based on ability and interest.

1. Projects to design, fabricate and test new ion traps with micro optical cavities.
2. Projects to set up a new optical lab with lasers and trap atomic ions in vacuum.

1. Functional studies on synaptic dysfunctions in human iPSC-derived neuronal culture models, using imaging and electrophysiological techniques.
2. Proteomic-based studies of synaptic proteins regarding their brain regional differences and differences between diseased and healthy humans.

Projects in synthetic organic chemistry related to the development of chemical transformation methods, the development of organocatalysts, and the synthesis of functionalized molecules.

Reiko Toriumi

Gravity, Quantum Geometry and Field Theory

1.  Focussed ultrasound effects on the brain.
2.  Mouse behavior in virtual reality.

Experimental projects on functional nucleic acids that function in cells (mammalian, bacterial), or purely chemical systems (test tubes, artificial cells). Requires some experience in molecular biology, biochemistry, or synthetic chemistry experiments. Some projects may require basic programming skills (e.g. Python) to analyze large sequencing datasets.

Yutaka Yoshida

Neural Circuit Unit

Projects related to analysis and partial differential equations on Heisenberg group, sub-Riemannian manifolds and general metric measure spaces.