Yasushi Umeda

Professor
Research into Artifacts, Center for Engineering (RACE)
School of Engineering
The University of Tokyo

Yasushi Umeda is a Full Professor in RACE (Research into Artifacts, Center for Engineering), School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo, Japan. He holds BE, ME, and Dr. Eng. in Precision Machinery Engineering from the University of Tokyo. He authored/edited 29 books, over 150 peer-reviewed articles, and has 19 patents granted/pending. Five of his papers won best paper awards in scientific journals and international conferences. His research interests include circular economy, smart manufacturing systems, life cycle engineering, eco-design, sustainability science, and design theory; especially, his current research interests include development and implementation of the concept of Digital Triplet.

Junichiro Shiomi

Professor
Institute of Engineering Innovation
Department of Mechanical Engineering
The University of Tokyo

Junichiro Shiomi is Professor in Institute of Engineering Innovation and Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo (UTokyo). He received B.E. (1999) from Tohoku University, and Ph. D. (2004) from Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden. Leading the Thermal Energy Engineering Lab, he has been pursuing research to advance thermal management, waste heat recovery, and energy harvesting technologies based on nano-to-macro innovation in materials, structures, and systems.
Prof. Shiomi has been leading several projects including Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) (JSPS), Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (JST-CREST), Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology (JST-PRESTO), and New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) projects. He is Fellow of Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers, Member of Science Council of Japan, and Member of Engineering Academy of Japan. He serves as an Associate Editor of Nanoscale and Microscale Thermophysical Engineering.
He is a recipient of the Zeldovich Medal from the Committee on Space Research, the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Educational, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (the Young Scientists’ Prize and the Science and Technology Prize), the Academic award of Heat Transfer Society of Japan, the Academic Award of Thermoelectric Society of Japan, the JSPS Award, and the Nukiyama Memorial Award.

Kaori Hayashi

Executive Vice President
The University of Tokyo

Kaori Hayashi is Professor of Media and Journalism Studies at the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, the University of Tokyo. She is Executive Vice President of the University of Tokyo in charge of global as well as diversity & inclusion affairs. She has served as the founding director of the B’AI Global Forum, which was set up within the Institute for AI and Beyond at the University of Tokyo. She is a contributor and columnist for a variety of media including Asahi Shimbun, one of the largest national dailies in Japan. She was a visiting scholar at Goldsmiths in 2017, hosted by the Abe Fellowship at the Social Science Research Council. Her most recent English publications include “The Silent Public in a Liberal State: Challenges for Japan’s Journalism in the Age of the Internet” in The Crisis of Liberal Internationalism. Japan and the World Order. Edited by Yoichi Funabashi and G. John Ikenberry. Brookings Institution Press, 2020, 325-358; “Gendered power relations in the digital age: An analysis of Japanese women’s media choice and use within a global context” in Feminist Media Studies, 2021. McNeill, David and Kaori Hayashi ”Fringe Benefits: Weekly Magazines and Access Journalism in Japan”. The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism. Second Edition, 2022, 442-450. Her co-authored paper “Taking a Break from News: A Five-nation Study of News Avoidance in the Digital Era” received 2023 Digital Journalism Outstanding Article of the Year Award, Bob Franklin Journal Article Award as well as 2023 Wolfgang Donsbach Outstanding Journal Article of the Year Award.

Atsushi Tsuda

Executive Vice President
150th Anniversary of Tokyo Chair
The University of Tokyo

Professor Atsushi Tsuda began his career as an assistant professor at the Ocean Research Institute of the University of Tokyo, and has served as Chief of Biological Oceanography Section, Hokkaido National Fisheries Research Institute, Fisheries Agency, Professor and Director of the Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute of the University of Tokyo. Currently, he is an executive vice president in charge of social cooperation, industry-academia co-creation, 150th anniversary projects, and general affairs. He has many accomplishments in biological oceanography, especially in zooplankton ecology and the effects of iron as trace element on marine ecosystems in the open ocean.

Colm Durkan

University of Cambridge

Hisashi Nakamura

Professor
Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST)
The University of Tokyo

Hisashi Nakamura is a professor at Research Center of Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), the University of Tokyo. After receiving Ph.D. in atmospheric science from the University of Washington in 1990 and then staying in Seattle and Princeton as a postdoc, he became a faculty member of the University of Tokyo in 1993. Nakamura has published 180 refereed papers in making significant contributions to various areas of climate dynamics, including assessing dynamics of preferred modes of atmospheric variability and their modulations under the global warming, revealing active roles of warm ocean currents and associated sea-surface temperature fronts in shaping extratropical jets/storm-tracks and their variability in addition to organization of cloud/precipitation systems, as well as the role of air-sea interaction in the formation of subtropical anticyclones. He was a full member of the Science Council of Japan and currently acts as the project leader of ClimCORE for regional atmospheric reanalysis around Japan, vice president of the Meteorological Society of Japan, chair of the Advisory Panel on Extreme Climate Events of the Japan Meteorological Agency, and chair of the Meteorological Section, Transportation Policy Council under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism. He received the Yamamoto-Shono award (1994), highest academy award (2004), and the Fujiwhara award (2020) from the Meteorological Society of Japan, as well as Fellow of the Japan Geoscience Union (2022), and Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of MEXT (2023).

Ying Jin

Professor
Department of Architecture,
University of Cambridge

Ying Jin is Director of the Martin Centre for Architectural and Urban Studies - a research centre that has more than 50 years of track record in interdisciplinary research on buildings, cities and the wider built environment - in the Dept of Architecture of Cambridge University. He leads the theoretical development and practical applications of city-scale computer models at the Martin Centre, and since 2011 he is the lead convenor of the biennial international symposia on applied urban modelling.

TBA

University of Cambridge

Masakazu Sugiyama

Professor
Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST)
The University of Tokyo

Masakazu Sugiyama is the director and a professor at Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), The University of Tokyo. He received the B.E., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical Systems Engineering, all from the University of Tokyo, Japan, in 1995, 1997, and 2000, respectively. In 2000, he became a Research Associate at the Department of Chemical System Engineering, the University of Tokyo. In 2002, he joined the Department of Electronic Engineering as a Lecturer. He became an Associate Professor in 2005. In 2016, he was promoted to a full professor and then moved to RCAST in 2017.
His major research topics are high-efficiency photovoltaic (PV) devices using the nano-epitaxial structures of III-V compound semiconductors. He is a recognized leader in the sustainable conversion of solar energy to next-generation fuels. He is a program manager of Japanese MOONSHOT program, aiming to realize CO2 capture and conversion to chemical feedstocks driven by renewable electricity. He authored and coauthored 300 refereed journal publications and 510 international conference papers.

Yukari Takamura

Professor
Institute for Future Initiatives
The University of Tokyo

Yukari Takamura is Professor at the Institute for Future Initiatives, The University of Tokyo. After receiving Master of Laws (Public International Law) from Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, she was appointed Associate Professor at Shizuoka University. Before joining the University of Tokyo in 2018, she worked as Professor at Ryukoku University, Kyoto, and Professor at Nagoya University, Japan. She also studied at Graduate School of University of Paris II (Panthéon-Assas), France and was Visiting Researcher at University of London, U.K.
She is member of the Editorial Board of Journal Sustainability Science and of the Editorial Advisory Board of Journal Climate Policy. She is member of Board of Directors of the Japanese Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies as well as member of the Board of Executive Directors of the Japanese Society for Environmental Law and Policy Studies.
She serves as member of governmental advisory bodies, among others, Central Environmental Council as President, and Procurement Price Calculation Committee for Feed-in Tariff Scheme for Renewable Energy as Chair. She is also member of the Advisory Group on Climate Change and Sustainable Development of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). She is member of Science Council of Japan and serves as Vice President since October 2020, and received Environmental Conservation Merit’s Minister of the Environment Award in 2018.