Faculty and Research

92 Faculty members
    • Najwa Aaraj

      Najwa Aaraj

      • Professor (Adjunct)
      • Princeton University, PhD, 2009
      • Princeton University, MA, 2009

      Since May 2019, Dr. Najwa Aaraj has been the Chief Researcher of the Cryptography Research Center and the Autonomous Robotics Center at the Technology Innovation Institute (TII), United Arab Emirates (UAE) where she leads the research and development of cryptographic and quantum communication technologies, as well as the advancement of autonomous robotics and self-navigating vehicles.

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    • Ugur Abdulla

      Ugur Abdulla

      • Professor
      • Dr. rer. nat. habil., Saxon State Ministry of Science and Fine Arts, Germany, June 13 2003
      • Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, High Attestation Comission of Azerbaijan Republic, March 31 1995
      • Ph.D. Soviet Union Academy of Sciences, USSR   November 29, 1988

      Professor Ugur Abdulla received Ph.D. in Mathematics from Soviet Union Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Physical & Mathematical Sciences degree from High Attestation Comission of the Azerbaijan Republic, Habilitation Doctor degree in Mathematics from Saxon Ministry of Art and Sciences in Germany.

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    • David Armitage

      David Armitage

      • Assistant Professor
      • PhD University of California Berkeley
      • MSc University of Florida
      • BSc University of Michigan

      I am an ecologist working at the interface of communities and ecosystems. After graduating from the University of Michigan, I earned a master’s degree in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation from the University of Florida researching the responses of forest bat communities to fire. I then did my PhD in Integrative Biology from UC Berkeley studying the assembly of carnivorous plant-associated microbial communities.

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    • Mahesh Bandi

      Mahesh Bandi

      • Professor
      • PhD Physics, University of Pittsburgh 2006.
      • MS Physics, University of Pittsburgh 2004.
      • MS Electrical Engineering, University of Pittsburgh 2002.
      • BE Computer Science and Engineering, University of Madras 1998.

      Mahesh grew up in India and received his Bachelors' in Computer Science & Engineering from the University of Madras (1998). Following a two year stint in the Indian software industry, he returned to academia and earned his MS Electrical Engineering (2002), MS Physics (2004) and PhD Physics (2006), all from the University of Pittsburgh. He then undertook postdoctoral terms at the Center for Nonlinear Studies and the Materials Physics Applications Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory (2006 - 2009) and the Applied Math.

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    • Tom Bourguignon

      Tom Bourguignon

      • Associate Professor
      • PhD Biological Sciences (Free University of Brussels, 2010)
      • Master of Advanced Studies in Sciences (Free University of Brussels, 2006)
      • Master in Biological Sciences (Free University of Brussels, 2005)

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    • Thomas Busch

      Thomas Busch

      • Professor
      • Ph.D. in Physics, Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Innsbruck, Austria
      • M.Sc. in Physics, University of Constance, Germany

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    • Pinaki Chakraborty

      Pinaki Chakraborty

      • Professor
      • MS, PhD from The University of Illinois
      • BEng, The National Institute of  Technology, Surat

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    • Síle Nic Chormaic

      Síle Nic Chormaic

      • Professor
      • Docteur en Physique, Université Sorbonne Paris-Nord, France
      • MSc (Experimental Physics), The National University of Ireland, Maynooth
      • BSc (Honours) in Experimental and Mathematical Physics, The National University of Ireland, Maynooth.

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    • Carlos Cid

      Carlos Cid

      • Professor (Adjunct)
      • PhD in Mathematics, Universidade de Brasília, Brazil, 1999
      • BSc in Mathematics, Universidade de Brasília, Brazil, 1994

      Carlos Cid was awarded his PhD in Mathematics (in the area of combinatorial group theory) in 1999 at the Universidade de Brasília, Brazil. Soon after he moved to Europe, to take on a post-doctoral researcher position at RWTH-Aachen, Germany. In Aachen he worked on applications of symbolic computation methods for solving systems of partial differential equations. Carlos moved to the industry in 2001, to join a network security startup in Dublin, Ireland, as a software engineer, where he stayed for two years.

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    • Keshav M. Dani

      Keshav M. Dani

      • Professor
      • M.A., Ph.D. in Physics. University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
      • B.S. with Honors in Mathematics. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA

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    • Erik De Schutter

      Erik De Schutter

      • Professor
      • BMed, DMed, HabMed from The University of Antwerp

      Erik De Schutter was born in Antwerp, Belgium. He studied medicine and got his MD in 1984 at the University of Antwerp, where he subsequently specialized as a neuropsychiatrist. During his medical residency he started work on computational modeling of central pattern generation in the leech. In 1990 he became a research fellow at the California Institute of Technology where he developed his famous Purkinje cell model. He returned in 1993 to the University of Antwerp to start the Theoretical Neurobiology group, with a focus on modeling the cerebellum.

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    • Ulf Dieckmann

      Ulf Dieckmann

      • Professor
      • Habilitation, Biomathematics, University of Vienna, Austria, 2000
      • PhD, Biology, Leiden University, The Netherlands, 1997
      • Master’s degree, Physics, University of Aachen, Germany, 1994
      • Bachelor’s degree, Physics, University of Aachen, Germany, 1990

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    • Kenji Doya

      Kenji Doya

      • Professor
      • PhD (1991), BS (1984), and MS (1986), Department of Mathematical Engineering and Information Physics, The University of Tokyo

      I want to understand how we learn motor skill, make decisions, imagine the future, and communicate and collaborate with others. And understanding means I can build machines that can do the same or more. That is why I study reinforcement learning and probabilistic inference, and how they are realized in the brain.

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    • Evan P. Economo

      Evan P. Economo

      • Professor
      • PhD. Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, The University of Texas
      • B.S. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona

      I am a biologist with broad interests in the ecology and evolution of biodiversity.  I was born in Montreal, Canada, and grew up North Carolina, USA, before pursuing undergraduate work at the University of Arizona and graduate work at the University of Texas at Austin.  I was a fellow in the Society of Fellows at the University of Michigan from 2009-2012.  Since 2012 I have been a faculty member at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology where I lead the Biodiversity and Biocomplexity Unit.  In academic year 2021-2022, I was the Mary

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    • Artur Ekert

      Artur Ekert

      • Professor (Adjunct)
      • 1991 D.Phil. Oxford
      • 1985 M.Sc. Physics Jagiellonian University, Cracow

      Artur Ekert is one of the pioneers of quantum cryptography. His research extends over most aspects of information processing in quantum-mechanical systems. It is a cross-disciplinary field bringing together theoretical and experimental quantum physics, computer science and information theory. Its scope ranges from deep fundamental issues in physics to prospective commercial exploitation by the computing and communications industries. His work is mostly theoretical but its results also bear directly on issues of experimental implementation.

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    • David Elkouss

      David Elkouss

      • Associate Professor
      • PhD Polytechnic Universiy of Madrid, Faculty of Computer Science.
      • Master in International Business Administration ICEX-CECO Business School.
      • Diplôme d’ingénieur (MSc) École nationale supérieure des télécommunications (now called Télecom Paris). Polytechnic Institute of Paris.
      • Ingeniero de Telecomunicaciones (MSc) Polytechnic University of Madrid, Faculty of Telecommunications.

      David Elkouss holds master's degrees in electrical engineering from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) and Telecom Paris. During his master's studies, he became passionate about (classical) error correction and the fundamental limits of communications. He moved to the computer science faculty at UPM to earn his Ph.D. optimizing error-correcting codes for quantum key distribution. After the Ph.D., he held two postdoctoral positions.

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    • Dmitry Feichtner-Kozlov

      Dmitry Feichtner-Kozlov

      • Adjunct Professor
      • Ph.D., 1996, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
      • M.Sc., 1992, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

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    • Yejun Feng

      Yejun Feng

      • Associate Professor
      • Ph.D. Physics, The University of Washington 2003
      • M.S. Physics, The University of Washington 2002
      • M.A. Physics, The City College of New York 1999
      • B.S. Physics, Fudan University 1996

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    • Eliot Fried

      Eliot Fried

      • Professor
      • PhD, MS, California Institute of Technology

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    • Tom Froese

      Tom Froese

      • Assistant Professor
      • Doctor of Philosophy in Cognitive Science (D.Phil., University of Sussex, 2010)
      • Master of Engineering in Computer Science and Cybernetics (M.Eng., University of Reading, 2004)
      • International Baccalaureate Bilingual Diploma (I.B., International School Manila, 2000)

      Froese is a cognitive scientist with a background in computer science and complex systems. He investigates the interactive basis of life and mind with a variety of methods, including evolutionary robotics, agent-based modeling, sensory substitution interfaces, artificial neural networks, and virtual reality. He is particularly known for his contributions to the field of artificial life and to the enactive approach to cognitive science.

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    • Tomoki Fukai

      Tomoki Fukai

      • Professor
      • PhD Physics, Waseda University, 1985
      • MSc Physics, Waseda University, 1982
      • BSc Physics, Waseda University, 1980

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    • Izumi Fukunaga

      Izumi Fukunaga

      • Associate Professor
      • Ph.D. University College London
      • B.Sc. University College London

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    • Gustavo Gioia

      Gustavo Gioia

      • Professor
      • PhD in Solid Mechanics, Brown University
      • MSc in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Northwestern University
      • Diploma in Structural Engineering, University of Buenos Aires

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    • Yukiko Goda

      Yukiko Goda

      • Professor
      • PhD Stanford University
      • BSc University of Toronoto

      My research career had its beginnings in undergraduate summer internships – one in an organic chemistry lab and another in a gene regulation lab at the University of Toronto where I first found the excitement of experimental problem solving. For my PhD, I joined Dr. Suzanne Pfeffer’s group at Stanford University where I studied intracellular membrane traffic. Subsequently, attracted by the field of neuroscience, I received my postdoctoral training at the Salk Institute under the mentorship of Dr. Chuck Stevens.

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    • Igor Goryanin

      Igor Goryanin

      • Professor (Adjunct)
      • PhD, The Russian Academy of Science
      • BSc, Moscow Engineering Physics Institute

      Prof Igor Goryanin has graduated as applied mathematician (computer science department) from Moscow Engineering Physical Institute. He has got his PhD in biophysics in the Institute of Biophysics, Russia Academy of Sciences (1995) where he has started to develop systems biology software.  

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    • Shinobu Hikami

      Shinobu Hikami

      • Professor
      • Doctor of Science, The University of Tokyo

      Selected Publications R. Abe and S. Hikami, Critical exponents and scaling relations in 1/n expansion, Prog. Theor. Phys.49 (1973) 442. https://doi.org/10.1143/PTP.49.442 S. Hikami, E. Brezin, Three-loop calculations in the two dimensional non-linear sigma model, J. Phys. A: Math.Gen. 11 (1978), 1141. https://doi.org/10.1088/0305-4470/11/6/015 S. Hikami, T. Tsuneto, Phase transition of quasi-two dimensional planar system,Prog. Theor. Phys. 63(1980) 387. https://doi.org/10.1143/PTP.63.387 S. Hikami, AI. Larkin, Y.

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    • Philipp Höhn

      Philipp Höhn

      • Assistant Professor
      • 2012 PhD in Theoretical Physics, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands
      • 2008 Diplom (equivalent), Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Germany
      • 2006 Bachelor of Science with Honours, The Australian National University, Australia

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    • Filip Husnik

      Filip Husnik

      • Assistant Professor
      • PhD (Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics), Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, 2017
      • MSc. (Parasitology), University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic, 2012

      I am broadly interested in major evolutionary transitions such as the origin of the eukaryotic cell and its symbiotic organelles, mitochondria and plastids. I work at the interface of multiple disciplines, particularly evolutionary biology, cell biology, genomics, microbiology, biochemistry, and computational biology. My favorite model systems are any symbiotic organisms, insects, protists, and marine microbes. I grew up near Prague, did my graduate work in Budweis, and then my research brought me to the USA, UK, Canada, and finally Japan.

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    • Hiroki Ishikawa

      Hiroki Ishikawa

      • Associate Professor
      • BSc, MSc, PhD, Nagoya University

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    • Ryota Kabe

      Ryota Kabe

      • Assistant Professor
      • Ph.D. Kyushu University, Japan, 2010
      • MS Osaka University, Japan, 2007
      • BS Kansai University, Japan, 2005

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    • Julia Khusnutdinova

      Julia Khusnutdinova

      • Associate Professor
      • PhD Chemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, 2009
      • B.Sc. Chemistry, Kazan State University, Russia (2003)

      Julia Khusnutdinova received her Ph.D. degree in Organometallic Chemistry at the University of Maryland in College Park, USA. She then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Washington University working on organopalladium(III) complexes, and in 2012 she joined the group of Prof. David Milstein at the Weizmann Institute of Science as a Dean of Faculty postdoctoral fellow working on carbon dioxide conversion to methanol and atom-economical transformations catalyzed by Ru pincer complexes.

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    • Hiroaki Kitano

      Hiroaki Kitano

      • Professor (Adjunct)
      • PhD, Kyoto University
      • BA, International Christian University

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    • Tomomi Kiyomitsu

      Tomomi Kiyomitsu

      • Assistant Professor
      • PhD Kyoto University, Graduate School of Biostudies, Japan 2008
      • Master’s of Life Sciences, Kyoto University, Graduate School of Biostudies, Japan 2004
      • BAg Kyoto University, Department of Agriculture, Japan 2002

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    • Fyodor Kondrashov

      Fyodor Kondrashov

      • Professor
      • 2005 – 2008 PhD degree in Biology from University of California at San Diego
      • 2003 – 2004 Master of Arts degree in Population Biology from University of California at Davis
      • 1996 – 2000 Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology and Ecology from Simon's Rock College

      Fyodor started his research career in the year 2000 in the lab of Eugene Koonin at NCBI, NIH after his BA degree. The main focus of his research was evolutionary genomics and bioinformatics. In 2003 Fyodor continued on to University of California at Davis graduating with an MA degree. In 2005 with the help of an NSF Graduate Fellowship he started his PhD in University of California at San Diego graduating in 2008.

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    • Keiko Kono

      Keiko Kono

      • Assistant Professor
      • Ph.D. University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, Japan 2005
      • M.S. University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, Japan 2002
      • B.S. University of Tokyo, Department of Science, Japan 2000

      Assistant Professor at Membranology Unit. Keiko's research is focused on plasma membrane damage, cellular senescence, and organismal aging. 

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    • Denis Konstantinov

      Denis Konstantinov

      • Professor
      • PhD, Brown University, USA
      • BSc, MSc, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology

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    • Bernd Kuhn

      Bernd Kuhn

      • Professor
      • Dr rer. nat., Technical University of Munich
      • Diploma, University of Ulm

      Bernd Kuhn earned a PhD in Physics from the Technical University of Munich, Germany, working at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry. In 2001, he received a prestigious fellowship by the Ernst Rudolf Schloeßmann Foundation of the Max Planck Society. This fellowship allowed him to continue his project at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany. In 2004, he joined a virology and a neuroscience laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.

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    • Akihiro Kusumi

      Akihiro Kusumi

      • Professor
      • D.Sc. (Biophysics) Department of Biophysics, Kyoto University, 1980
      • B.Sc. (Biophysics) Department of Biophysics, Kyoto University, 1975

      My love of membranes was accidentally initiated when I, a senior majoring in physics at that time, entered a wrong lecture room where Prof. Shun-ichi Ohnishi of Kyoto University happened to be lecturing about the Singer-Nicolson’s fluid mosaic model in his membrane course in 1974, just two years after the publication of this model.

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    • Vincent Laudet

      Vincent Laudet

      • Professor
      • ‘Habilitation’ to direct research, University of Lille I, France, 1996
      • Ph.D. in Life and Health Sciences, University of Lille I, France, 1992

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    • Paola Laurino

      Paola Laurino

      • Associate Professor
      • Ph.D. Organic Chemistry (ETH Zurich, 2011)
      • M.Ph. Medicinal Chemistry (Leiden University, 2007)
      • Master Degree (Laurea) Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology (Milan University)

      I am an organic chemist with broad interests in biochemistry and protein evolution. I was born and grew up in Italy. After pursuing a master in medicinal chemistry in the Netherlands, I started my doctoral studies in organic chemistry in ETHZ (Switzerland). During my PhD I moved to Max Plank Institute (Germany) along with my mentor and there finished my doctoral studies. As postdoctoral fellow I spent the last four years studying enzyme evolution and engineering in Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel).

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    • Qing Liu

      Qing Liu

      • Associate Professor
      • PhD, University of Tokyo, 2011
      • B.S., Fudan University, 2005

      After graduation from his undergraduate program at Fudan University, Qing Liu started his study on nonlinear partial differential equations at the University of Tokyo and received his PhD in Mathematical Sciences in 2011. He continued his research work as a postdoctoral associate at University of Pittsburgh from 2011 to 2015. He was appointed as an assistant professor in 2015 and later promoted to associate professor at Fukuoka University. Qing joined OIST as an associate professor in 2022.

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    • Christine Luscombe

      Christine Luscombe

      • Professor
      • Post-doctoral Fellow, Department of Chemistry, UC Berkeley, USA, 2004-2006
      • PhD, Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, UK, 2005
      • BA, MSci, Trinity College, University of Cambridge, UK, 2000

      Christine Luscombe grew up in Kobe, Japan. After receiving her Bachelor’s degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge in 2000, she worked with Profs. Andrew Holmes and Wilhelm Huck in the Melville Laboratory of Polymer Synthesis at the University of Cambridge where her research focused on surface modifications using supercritical carbon dioxide for her PhD. She received the Syngenta Award for best organic chemistry project for her PhD. In January 2004, she joined the group of Prof.

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    • Nicholas M. Luscombe

      Nicholas M. Luscombe

      • Professor
      • PhD, University College London
      • BA (Honours), MA, The University of Cambridge

      Following a degree in Natural Sciences at Cambridge University (1993-1996), Nick studied for a PhD in structural biology with Janet Thornton at University College London on the basis for specificity of DNA-binding proteins (1996-2000). He moved to Yale University as an Anna Fuller Postdoctoral Fellow with Mark Gerstein, where he shifted research focus to genomics with a particular emphasis on gene regulation in yeast (2000-2004).

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    • Ichiro Masai

      Ichiro Masai

      • Professor
      • PhD, MSc, BSc, the University of Tokyo

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    • Franz Meitinger

      Franz Meitinger

      • Assistant Professor
      • PhD University of Heidelberg, Germany, 2011
      • Diplom (M.Sc.) University of Regensburg, Germany, 2007

      Franz Meitinger studied biology at the University of Regensburg and pursued a Ph.D. in cell biology at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg. During his doctoral work, he investigated the connection between cell division, polarity, and aging. He conducted his postdoc at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in San Diego, where he discovered novel mechanisms of mitotic quality control and centrosome assembly using genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing screens.

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    • Jonathan Miller

      Jonathan Miller

      • Professor
      • PhD in Physics, The California Institute of Technology
      • PhD in Biology, The University of Cambridge (MRC LMB)
      • BS, Yale University

      After discovering the first "zinc finger" as an experimental biologist [1,2], Miller worked for more than a decade in theoretical condensed matter physics [3] at Caltech, AT&T Bell Laboratories Murray Hill, the University of Chicago, NEC Princeton, and Princeton University. He joined OIST in 2008.

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    • Satoshi Mitarai

      Satoshi Mitarai

      • Professor
      • PhD, The University of Washington
      • BS, MS, Osaka Prefecture University

      The primary objective of Professor Mitarai’s research is to understand the role of ocean turbulence in regulating biological processes and its consequences for population structure and dynamics of marine ecosystems, through international collaborations.

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    • Bill Munro

      Bill Munro

      • Professor
      • 20 April 1995: D. Phil (Quantum Optics), University of Waikato (NZ)
      • 19 April 1991: M. Sc (1st class honors), University of Waikato (NZ)
      • 14 April 1989: B. Sc (Chemistry and Physics), University of Waikato (NZ)

      William John MUNRO received his D. Phil degree in Physics from the University of Waikato (NZ) in 1995 and has spent the majority of his career as an industrial scientist in both Hewlett Packard and NTT Basic Research Laboratories. Within NTT BRL he was the founding director of its research center for Theoretical Quantum Physics and a senior member of its technical staff.

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    • Gene Myers

      Gene Myers

      • Professor (Adjunct)
      • Honorary Ph.D., ETH, Switzerland, 2005
      • Ph.D. Computer Science, U. of Colorado, 1981
      • BS Mathematics, Caltech, 1975

      At heart, Gene Myers, is an algorithmicist – a computer scientist who invents time and memory efficient methods for solving precisely formulated computational problems.  Early in his career he was introduced to the then emerging field of bioinformatics and became fascinated with problems involved in comparing and analyzing DNA and protein sequences.  Through the 80’s he developed numerous fundamental algorithms in this area, the most well-known of which is the BLAST program.  One of the big draws of the work was its interdisciplinarity – he loved

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    • Shigehiro Nagataki

      Shigehiro Nagataki

      • External Professor
      • Mar. 1993, Bachelor of Science, The University of Tokyo
      • Mar. 1995, Master of Science, The University of Tokyo
      • Mar. 1998, Doctor of Science, The University of Tokyo

      The very existence of the universe itself is a mystery, and when we contemplate it, we cannot help but feel a sense of mystery. When we are confronted with the many mysterious phenomena and mysterious celestial bodies in the universe, we cannot help but feel that we have come into contact with something far beyond human knowledge. However, we do not regard them as mysteries or beyond human knowledge but try to understand them by the wisdom of humankind, which we call astrophysics.

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    • Akimitsu Narita

      Akimitsu Narita

      • Assistant Professor
      • Dr. rer. nat., Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research and Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz
      • MSc Chemistry, University of Tokyo
      • BSc Chemistry, University of Tokyo

      Akimitsu Narita was born and raised in Yokohama, Japan. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Chemistry at the University of Tokyo under the supervision of Professor Eiichi Nakamura. He then joined Professor Klaus Müllen's group at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPIP) in Mainz, Germany and obtained his doctorate in Chemistry from Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in 2014. In the same year, he became a project leader in the Synthetic Chemistry Department at MPIP.

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    • Yasha Neiman

      Yasha Neiman

      • Associate Professor
      • Ph.D. in Physics, Tel Aviv University, 2013
      • B.Sc. in Physics, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, 2005
      • B.A. in Computer Science, Open University of Israel, 2003

      My primary interest is quantum gravity in finite regions of space. As a meandering route to this end, I study higher-spin gravity in de Sitter space.

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    • Kae Nemoto

      Kae Nemoto

      • Professor
      • PhD, Ochanomizu University

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    • Yoshinori Okada

      Yoshinori Okada

      • Associate Professor
      • Ph.D. Crystalline Materials Science (Nagoya University, JAPAN, 2009)
      • B.Sc. Applied Physics (Nagoya University, Japan, 2004)

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    • Svante Pääbo

      Svante Pääbo

      • Professor (Adjunct)
      • PhD University of Uppsala, Sweden

      2022 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine Svante Pääbo has developed techniques and approaches that allow DNA sequences from archaeological and paleontological remains to be determined. This has allowed ancient DNA from extinct organisms, humans, animals and pathogens to be studied.

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    • Gerald Pao

      Gerald Pao

      • Assistant Professor
      • PhD Molecular Biology & Virology, University of California, San Diego/ Salk Institute
      • BS Biology, University of California, San Diego

      Dr. Gerald Pao worked originally on the molecular evolution of proteins from a structural and computational perspective as an undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego working with Milton H. Saier, Joseph Kraut, Flossie Wong-Staal, Russell F Doolittle and Tony Hunter. From there he went on to be mainly an experimentalist to study the epigenetics of cancer and stem cells and the development of viral vectors for basic science at the Salk institute during his PhD and postdoc with Inder M Verma.

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    • Simone Pigolotti

      Simone Pigolotti

      • Professor
      • Ph.D. Statistical and Biological Physics (SISSA/ISAS, 2004)
      • Degree in Physics (University of Rome)

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    • Yabing Qi

      Yabing Qi

      • Professor
      • PhD, The University of California, Berkeley
      • MPhil, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
      • BSc, Nanjing University

      Yabing Qi is Professor of Energy Materials and Surface Sciences Unit at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University in Japan. He received his B.S., M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Nanjing University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and UC Berkeley, respectively. His research interests include surface / interface sciences, perovskite solar cells, lithium batteries, and organic electronics (https://groups.oist.jp/emssu).

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    • Timothy Ravasi

      Timothy Ravasi

      • Professor
      • Doctorate Universita’ Degli Studi di Milano, Italy, 1999
      • MSc Universita’ Degli Studi di Milano, Italy, 1996

      Timothy Ravasi is a Professor of Marine Science, the Principal Investigator of the Marine Climate Change Unit at OIST and an Adjunct Professor at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University in Australia. Tim’s research interest lies on the current status of coral reef ecosystems. He is particularly interested in looking at ecologically relevant issues in the light of rapid environmental change, such as climate change.

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    • Sam Reiter

      Sam Reiter

      • Assistant Professor
      • PhD, Neuroscience, NIH-Brown University Graduate Partnership Program, 2014
      • BS, Neuroscience, Brown University, 2009

      Sam Reiter is currently an assistant professor and leader of the computational neuroethology unit at OIST. His background is in experimental neuroscience, where he has studied diverse topics in a range of model organisms (rat, fly, moth, locust, lizard, turtle, cuttlefish). He studied neuroscience at Brown University, went on to graduate school in neuroscience at Brown and the US. National Institutes of Health, and most recently worked as a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research.

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    • Daniel Rokhsar

      Daniel Rokhsar

      • Professor (Adjunct)
      • Ph.D. Cornell University
      • M.S. Cornell University
      • A.B. Princeton University

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    • Marco Edoardo Rosti

      Marco Edoardo Rosti

      • Assistant Professor
      • PhD in Aeronautical Engineering, City, University of London (2016)
      • MSc in Aeronautical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano (2013)
      • Bachelor Degree in Aerospace Engineering, Politecnico di Milano (2010)

      Marco was born in Italy where he studied Aeronautical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. He then moved to London (UK) for his doctoral studies and to Stockholm (Sweden) and Tokyo (Japan) for his postgraduate research.

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    • Lauren Sallan

      Lauren Sallan

      • Assistant Professor
      • PhD, University of Chicago
      • SM, University of Chicago
      • MS, Florida Atlantic University
      • BS, Florida Atlantic University

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    • Noriyuki Satoh

      Noriyuki Satoh

      • Professor
      • 1974 - PhD, The University of Tokyo
      • 1971 - MSc, Niigata University
      • 1969 - BSc, Hirosaki University

       Research Activity: Genome Scientific Studies on Animal Development and Evolution

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    • Hidetoshi Saze

      Hidetoshi Saze

      • Professor
      • PhD (Universitat Basel)
      • BSc MSc (Kyoto University)

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    • Nic Shannon

      Nic Shannon

      • Professor
      • 1997 PhD "Non Fermi-liquid physics in or near to one dimension", University of Warwick
      • 1993 BSc in Physics with Theoretical Physics (1st class Hons), University of Birmingham

      Nic Shannon is a theoretical physicist, working in the fields of condensed matter and statistical physics.   He has a strong interest in quantum magnets, and other examples of "Quantum Matter", where large numbers of quantum particles interact. Educated in the UK, Prof. Shannon spent time as a Postdoc at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA), CEA Saclay (France) and the Max Plank Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (Germany) before up taking a permanent position at the University of Bristol (UK) in 2006.

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    • Amy Shen

      Amy Shen

      • Professor
      • Ph.D. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
      • M.S. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
      • B.S. Hunan University

      OIST Provost and Professor of the Micro/Bio/Nanofluidics Unit.  Amy's research is focused on rheology and non-Newtonian fluid mechanics at the nano-biointerfaces, coupled with microfluidics, with the aid of novel 3D printing, microfabrication and imaging techniques. Her research usually combines experiments, theory, and modeling to explore the dynamics and properties of flows involving nano- or micro-structures. Her research group also develops lab-on-a-chip platforms for biosensing and disease diagnostic applications.

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    • Tsumoru Shintake

      Tsumoru Shintake

      • Professor
      • 1983  PhD in Engineering (Kyushu University, Japan)
      • 1980  BSc in Engineering (Kyushu University, Japan)

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    • Oleg Sitsel

      Oleg Sitsel

      • Transitional Assistant Professor
      • 2010-2015 Doctoral studies in molecular biology, Aarhus University (Denmark)
      • 2007-2010 Bachelor studies in gene technology, Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia)

      Assistant Professor and head of the Marine Structural Biology Unit. Oleg's research focuses on characterizing marine organisms by structural biological methods such as cryoelectron tomography and single particle cryoelectron microscopy. Coupled with orthogonal analytical techniques such as proteomics and transcriptomics, his research enables unparalleled, near-atomic level insights into the inner workings of our oceans’ inhabitants.

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    • Liron Speyer

      Liron Speyer

      • Assistant Professor
      • PhD Queen Mary University of London, 2015
      • MMath University of Warwick, 2011

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    • Greg J Stephens

      Greg J Stephens

      • Associate Professor (Adjunct)
      • PhD (Physics, University of Maryland)
      • MSc (Physics, Syracuse University)
      • BSc (Physics with High Honors, Ohio University)

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    • Gergely János Szöllősi

      Gergely János Szöllősi

      • Associate Professor
      • 2009 PhD in Biological Physics, Eötvös University, Budapest
      • 2004 MSc in Physics, Eötvös University, Budapest

      During his scientific career so far Gergely has developed quantitative models addressing questions spanning different biological disciplines. Starting from a PhD in Biological Physics his most significant contributions have been developing and applying probabilistic models of genome evolution that have opened up possibilities to exploit previously untapped sources of phylogenetic information in genome-scale datasets and, more recently, in developing analytical models and stochastic simulations of somatic evolution.

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    • Hiroki Takahashi

      Hiroki Takahashi

      • Assistant Professor
      • Ph.D in Quantum Optics (the University of Tokyo)
      • Master in Applied Physics (the University of Tokyo)

      Hiroki was born, raised and nurtured in Japan during his youth. In his master and Ph.D, he worked on quantum optics involving squeezed light, Schrödinger’s kittens and tons of optical mirrors. After that he decided to try his luck in the United Kingdom where he also started new research about ion trapping and cavity QED. After turbulent but enjoyable eight and half years in the UK, he returned to Japan in one piece. Then at University of Tokyo he experienced research using superconducting Josephson circuits.

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    • Tomoyuki Takahashi

      Tomoyuki Takahashi

      • Professor
      • PhD, MD, Tokyo Medical and Dental University

      After training as a medical doctor, Dr. Tomoyuki Takahashi received his Ph. D. degree in Pharmacology from Tokyo Medical & Dental University in 1975 for his pioneering works on substance P as a neurotransmitter in cat spinal cord. In post-doctoral training, he worked with Dr. Ricardo Miledi at the Biophysics Department, University College London, being supervised by Sir Bernard Katz. After returning to Japan, he collaborated with Dr.

      Unit

    • Fujie Tanaka

      Fujie Tanaka

      • Professor
      • PhD, Kyoto University, Japan
      • BS, Gifu Pharmaceutical University

      The Chemistry and Chemical Bioengineering Unit develops methods and strategies for the construction of organic molecules that contribute to biomedical research and drug discovery.

      Courses

      Unit

    • Kazumasa Tanaka

      Kazumasa Tanaka

      • Assistant Professor
      • Ph.D., University of California, Davis, Ph.D. program in Psychology Department, US 2015
      • M.S., Kitasato University, Graduate School in Biological Science, Japan 2010
      • B.S., Kitasato University, School of Science, Biology Department, Japan 2008

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      Unit

    • Jun Tani

      Jun Tani

      • Professor
      • Dr. Eng. Sophia University Tokyo
      • MSc University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA
      • BSc Waseda University, Tokyo

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    • Marco Terenzio

      Marco Terenzio

      • Assistant Professor
      • Ph.D. Neurobiology, University College London (UCL), 2010
      • M.S. Medical Biotechnology, University of Padua, Italy, 2006

      Marco Terenzio carried out his PhD in the laboratory of Prof. Giampietro Schiavo at Cancer Research UK in London, with the aim of identifying regulators of neurotrophin receptors endosomal distribution in motor neurons. After a brief first postdoc at the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, Germany, where he studied the mechanisms of mitochondrial clearance, he joined the laboratory of Prof.

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    • Reiko Toriumi

      Reiko Toriumi

      • Assistant Professor
      • PhD, University of California, Irvine, USA
      • BS, Indiana University Bloomington, USA

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      Unit

    • Emile Touber

      Emile Touber

      • Associate Professor
      • PhD (2010), University of Southampton, UK
      • Diplôme d’Ingénieur (2006), Institut Supérieur de Mécanique de Paris, France
      • MSc (2005), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

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    • Gail Tripp

      Gail Tripp

      • Professor
      • BSc (Honours), PhD, PGDipClPs

      Completed an honors degree in psychology, professional qualifications in clinical psychology and a PhD in neuroscience at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Following this she took up an appointment as a clinical psychologist in a large public hospital before returning to an academic position in the Psychology Department at the University of Otago. She taught graduate and undergraduate courses in adult and child abnormal psychology and graduate courses child assessment and intervention.

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    • Jason Twamley

      Jason Twamley

      • Professor
      • PhD in Quantum Cosmology, Supervisor Prof Don Page, University of Alberta, Canada (1991)
      • BA (mod) in Theoretical Physics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland (1986)

      Professor Jason Twamley is a leading researcher in the theoretical physics of quantum science and technology with a particular emphasis on hybrid quantum systems – systems where one marries together different types of quantum systems to achieve an overall functionality which no one subsystem possesses. Professor Twamley originally trained as a lecturer in Ireland and there pioneered many European Union projects focusing on fullerene and diamond based quantum technologies and won a number of EU STREPS and Integrated Projects.

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    • Marylka Yoe Uusisaari

      Marylka Yoe Uusisaari

      • Assistant Professor
      • PhD, Helsinki University, Finland, 2003
      • M.Sc, Helsinki University, Finland, 1999

      Dr. Marylka Yoe Uusisaari entered the neuroscience field from computer science and programming background in Helsinki, Finland, intrigued by the similarities and differences between artificial and neuronal computation and intelligence. This interest in the brain as the computational controller of the body machinery continued through her post-doctoral research first in RIKEN BSI, where she found her way into the cerebellar networks and established the diversity of neuronal classes in the cerebellar output nuclei.

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    • Hiroshi Watanabe

      Hiroshi Watanabe

      • Associate Professor
      • Ph.D. (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
      • M.S. (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
      • B.S. (Tokai University)

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      Unit

    • Jeff Wickens

      Jeff Wickens

      • Professor
      • PhD, MBChB, BMedSc, The University of Otago

      Courses

      Unit

    • Matthias Wolf

      Matthias Wolf

      • Professor
      • PhD, Brandeis University
      • MPharm, The University of Innsbruck

      Lab head, Molecular Cryo-Electron Microscopy Unit, OIST Lab website Publications

      Courses

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    • Makoto Yamada

      Makoto Yamada

      • Associate Professor
      • Ph.D. in Statistical Science, March 2010, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Japan
      • M.S. in Electrical Engineering, May 2005, Colorado State University, U.S.A.
      • B.S. in Computer Science, Mar 2003, University of Aizu, Japan

      Makoto Yamada received the PhD degree in statistical science from The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI, The Institute of Statistical Mathematics), Tokyo, in 2010. He has held positions as a postdoctoral fellow with the Tokyo Institute of Technology from 2010 to 2012, as a research associate with NTT Communication Science Laboratories from 2012 to 2013, as a research scientist with Yahoo Labs from 2013 to 2015, and as an assistant professor with Kyoto University from 2015 to 2017.

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    • Tadashi Yamamoto

      Tadashi Yamamoto

      • Professor
      • PhD, BSc, Osaka University

      Courses

      Unit

    • Yoko Yazaki-Sugiyama

      Yoko Yazaki-Sugiyama

      • Professor
      • MSc, PhD, Sophia University
      • BSc, Japan Women’s University

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      Unit

    • Yohei Yokobayashi

      Yohei Yokobayashi

      • Professor
      • Ph.D. Graduate Program in Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, 2001
      • M.Eng. Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, The University of Tokyo, 1996
      • B.Eng. Department of Synthetic Chemistry, The University of Tokyo, 1994

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    • Yutaka Yoshida

      Yutaka Yoshida

      • Professor
      • PhD University of Tokyo 1999
      • BS Keio University 1994

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    • Xiaodan Zhou

      Xiaodan Zhou

      • Assistant Professor
      • Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh, 2016
      • B.S., Beijing Normal University, 2011

      Courses

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      Picture
      Bandi

      OIST Faculty