Faculty 2016 1919-1 TANCHA, ONNA-SON, KUNIGAMI-GUN, OKINAWA, JAPAN 904-0495 TEL 81-98-966-8711 (INTERNATIONAL) 098-966-8711 (WITHIN JAPAN) WWW.OIST.JP OIST President While knowledge creation remains the defining role of a research university, the manner in which education and research are conducted is undergoing major change. Introduction If universities are to retain their central relevance to society, to the they must adapt their programs to the needs of the 21st century. Students must be educated to be effective citizens Graduate and leaders in a diverse and highly globalized world. University administrators and faculty must take leadership University in providing sustainable solutions to planet-threatening problems such as climate change, the energy supply, and human health, food and water shortages. The engine of Faculty true innovation, basic research with long-term R&D objectives, is arguably the most powerful tool for solving these problems. OIST Graduate University is at the forefront of creating change in how research and education are practiced. We hire world-leading faculty and we give them substantial support and considerable freedom to pursue basic research. By avoiding traditional administrative and physical bound- aries, and by creating easy access for people to each other and to research equipment, we have established a very open and intimate environment which naturally pro- motes cross-disciplinary education and research. We are training a new breed of students and young researchers to become future leaders in the global world of academia and/or industry—young talent that is receiving strong disciplinary training while additionally being exposed to a truly multidisciplinary experience that challenges them to bridge the boundaries between the physical and life sciences. What several years ago was a vision for change is now a successful reality. Jonathan Dorfan Brain Mechanisms for Collective Interactions Unit Quantum Systems Unit Behaviour Unit Professor Assistant Professor Associate Professor Gordon Arbuthnott Mahesh Bandi Thomas Busch Faculty BSc, PhD, The University of Aberdeen BEng, University of Madras PhD, The University of Innsbruck Formerly at The Karolinska Institute, MSc, PhD, The University of Pittsburgh Formerly at Konstanz University, The University of Aberdeen, The University Formerly at The Los Alamos National The University of Innsbruck of Edinburgh, and The University of Otago Laboratory, Harvard University, and Brown Aarhus University, Dublin Institute of University Technology, and University College Cork. The Brain Mechanisms for Behaviour Unit studies the over- or underpro- The Collective Interactions Unit is an The Quantum Systems Unit investi- duction of dopamine, a reward chemical experimental group with broad interests gates theoretical concepts of the produced by certain neurons in the in soft matter physics, applied quantum world. Drawing from ultra- brain. Using techniques in physiology, mathematics, mechanics, and their cold atomic gases and other natural molecular genetics, and anatomy to application to biologically inspired and synthetic quantum systems, their investigate dopamine’s role in neural problems. Unit researchers work in aim is to devise models that explain systems, the Unit studies the basic the general area that concerns quantum phenomena—such as a mechanisms of how animals, macroscopic, non-relativistic matter particle being in two places at the including humans, interact with the and its interactions. Current interests same time—and develop methods to world. The results are relevant to include problems related to interfacial quantify, control and engineer them. diseases ranging from addiction to fluid dynamics, granular solids, and Parkinson’s. biomechanics of the human foot. Fluid Mechanics Unit Femtosecond Computational Neural Computation Unit Biodiversity and Mathematical Soft Matter Unit Spectroscopy Unit Neuroscience Unit Biocomplexity Unit Associate Professor Assistant Professor Professor Professor Assistant Professor Professor Pinaki Chakraborty Keshav Dani Erik De Schutter Kenji Doya Evan Economo Eliot Fried BEng, The National Institute of BS (Honours), The California Institute BMed, DMed, HabMed from The BS, MS, and PhD from The BSc, the University of Arizona BA (Honors), University of California at Technology, Surat of Technology University of Antwerp University of Tokyo PhD, The University of Texas Berkeley MS, PhD from The University of Illinois MA, PhD, The University of California, Formerly at The University of Antwerp Formerly at UC San Diego, the Salk Formerly at The University of Michigan MS, PhD, California Institute of Technology Formerly at the University of Illinois Berkeley Institute, and the ATR Computational Formerly at the University of Illinois at Formerly at The Los Alamos National Neuroscience Laboratories The Biodiversity and Biocomplexity Urbana-Champaign, McGill University, and Laboratory and The Lawrence Berkeley The Computational Neuroscience Unit Unit explores how ecological and The University of Washington The Fluid Mechanics Unit studies how National Laboratory studies how neurons and microcircuits The Neural Computation Unit develops evolutionary processes generate and substances flow, be it the turbulent in the brain operate. Unit researchers algorithms that elucidate the brain’s sustain biodiversity. The Unit The relatively new but rapidly expanding field of churning of typhoons or oil streaming Using intense, ultrafast laser pulses, explore the influences of neuronal mor- mechanisms for robust and flexible integrates theoretical, field, and lab soft matter focuses on materials whose basic through a pipeline. The Unit meticu- the Femtosecond Spectroscopy Unit phology and excitability on common learning. The Unit focuses on how the approaches to investigate how structural elements consist of many atomic or lously analyzes motion through soap explores the optical properties of neural functions such as synaptic brain processes reinforcement species evolve, move around, and molecular subelements. These materials typically films and pipes to learn crucial details matter. Its members study graphene plasticity and learning, and determine learning, in which a biological or adapt to their environments. Projects exhibit structure on length scales ranging from of how energy disperses in two and and other two-dimensional materials how molecular mechanisms enable artificial agent learns novel behaviors focus on the dynamics of ant nanoscopic to mesoscopic and, as the name three dimensions. Modeling these for their potential in transparent, these functions. Their studies focus in uncertain environments by communities in the Pacific islands, implies, are relatively easy to deform. Research in phenomena can help predict motion, flexible electronics; research semi- on the cerebellum, as it has a relatively exploration and reward feedback. global diversity patterns of all ants, the Mathematical Soft Matter Unit focuses on improve our response to adverse conductors for photocatalytic and solar simple anatomy and the physiology Top-down computational approaches and macroevolution of the fundamental and applied, combining techniques weather conditions, and management energy applications; and investigate of its main neurons is well known, are combined with bottom-up “hyperdiverse” ant genus Pheidole. from statistical and continuum mechanics, of oil-pipeline networks. applications of ultrafast laser pulses to allowing detailed modeling at many neurobiological approaches to achieve differential geometry, asymptotic analysis, biology and medicine. levels of complexity. these goals. bifurcation theory, and large-scale scientific computing. Topics of ongoing interest include discoidal high-density lipoproteins, perforated lipid bilayers, suspensions of self-propelled agents like bacteria, and the contact-line dynamics of sessile drops undergoing evaporation and condensation. Continuum Physics Unit Biological Systems Unit Mathematical and Theoretical Immune Signal Unit Microbiology and Biochemistry Coordination Chemistry and Physics Unit of Secondary Metabolites Unit Catalysis Unit Professor Adjunct Professor Professor Assistant Professor Assistant Professor Assistant Professor Gustavo Gioia Igor Goryanin Shinobu Hikami Hiroki Ishikawa Holger Julia Jenke-Kodama Khusnutdinova Diploma in structural engineering, BSc, Moscow Engineering Physics Institute BSc, MSc, PhD from The University of Tokyo BSc, MSc, PhD, Nagoya University Diploma in biochemistry from the B.Sc. from Kazan State University, Russia University of Buenos Aires PhD, The Russian Academy of Science Formerly at the University of Tokyo Formerly at Tohoku University and The Freie Universität Berlin PhD from University of Maryland, College MsC in theoretical and applied mechanics, Formerly at The Russian Academy of Science, University of Miami Dr. rer. nat. from the Humboldt Park Northwestern University University College London, The University University of Berlin Formerly at Washington University in St. The Mathematical and Theoretical PhD in solid mechanics, Brown University of Edinburgh, and GlaxoSmithKline Formerly at the University of Tokyo, The Louis Physics Unit uses mathematical All animals and plants have an innate, Formerly at University of Minnesota, Currently at The University of Edinburgh University of Cologne, the Humboldt and the Weizmann Institute of Science models, like random matrix theory, to or non-specific, immune system Rutgers University, and University of Illinois