Distinguished Professors
Susumu Kitagawa
Executive Vice President and Distinguished Professor
Ph.D. in Engineering, Kyoto University. Kitagawa served as Associate Professor at the Faculty of Science and Engineering of Kindai University, Professor at the Department of Chemistry of Tokyo Metropolitan University. In 1998, he moved back to Kyoto University and served as Professor at Graduate School of Engineering until 2017 . He was Director of iCeMS from 2013-2023 and Deputy Director-General of KUIAS (from 2016 through 2018 and 2020 through 2024). He has been Distinguished Professor at KUIAS since 2017 and was appointed Executive Vice-President for Research Promotion for Kyoto University in 2024.
Kitagawa developed "porous" materials with numerous nano-sized holes. These materials are expected to be used for the development of new materials to absorb carbon dioxide causing global warming, and also for medical applications.
He was selected as a Thomson Reuters Citation Laureate in 2010, received the Japan Academy Prize in 2016 and the Chemistry for the Future Solvay Prize in 2017, and was elected as a member of the Japan Academy in 2019 and Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 2023.
Shigefumi Mori
Director-General and Distinguished Professor
D.Sc., Kyoto University. Mori served as Assistant at Kyoto University from 1975 through 1980, and as Lecturer, Associate Professor, and Professor at Nagoya University from 1980 through 1990. In 1990 he moved back to Kyoto University and served as Professor at the Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences until 2016, and became Director-General of KUIAS.
Mori was awarded the Fields Medal at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1990, for "the existence proof of minimal models for three-dimensional algebraic varieties." This prize is often described as the Nobel Prize in the field of mathematics.
He was awarded the Frank Nelson Cole Prize, won the Fields Medal, was selected as a Person of Cultural Merit by the Minister of MEXT in 1990, was elected as a member of the Japan Academy in 1998, and received Order of Culture from the Japanese Government in 2021. He took office as President of the International Mathematical Union from 2015 to 2018.
Tasuku Honjo
Deputy Director-General and Distinguished Professor
Ph.D., Kyoto University. Honjo served as Professor at the School of Medicine of Osaka University. After that he moved back to Kyoto and served as Professor at the Faculty of Medicine from 1984 through 2005, then he served as Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of medicine. In 2017, he became Distinguished Professor of KUIAS.
Honjo solved the mechanistic principle of vaccination-induced antibody memory by discovery of AID, which engraves antigen memory in the immunoglobulin gene. Honjo also contributed to the development of cancer immunotherapy by discovering the protein "PD-1" that suppresses the function of immune cells. This therapy is approved worldwide for many types of cancers including lung cancer.
He was elected as a member of the Japan Academy in 2005, and was awarded Robert Koch Prize in 2012, Order of Culture from the Japanese Government in 2013, Tang Prize in 2014, Kyoto Prize in 2016, and Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2018.
Kazutoshi Mori
Deputy Director-General and Distinguished Professor
Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto University. Mori served as Assistant Professor at Gifu Pharmaceutical University, Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, and Deputy Research Manager/Research Manager at HSP Research Institute. In 1999, he moved back to Kyoto University and served as Associate Professor at Graduate School of Biostudies from 1999 to 2003 and Professor at Graduate School of Science from 2003 to 2024. He became Distinguished Professor at KUIAS in 2024.
He is recognized as a pioneer in the field of the Unfolded Protein Response.
He received Canada Gairdner International Award in 2009, Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in 2014, Imperial Prize and Japan Academy Prize in 2016, Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences in 2017, and was selected as Person of Cultural Merit in 2018
Invited Distinguished Professor
Takeo Kanade
Invited Distinguished Professor
Ph.D. in Engineering, Kyoto University. Kanade has been Founders University Professor of Computer Science and Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) since 2023, after serving as Research Assistant and Associate Professor at Kyoto University and also as Associate Professor, Professor, U.A. and Helen Whitaker Chaired Professor, and U.A. and Helen Whitaker University Professor at CMU. He has contributed to the basic theory of computer vision and introduced a series of innovative applied technologies in robotics including automated driving and new media using a large number of cameras, constantly advancing the frontiers of this academic field for many years.
He was elected as a foreign member of US National Academy of Engineering in 1997, and received the Kyoto Prize for his achievements in 2016 and IEEE Founders Medal in 2017. He was also selected as a Person of Cultural Merit by the Minister of MEXT in 2019, and was elected as a member of the Japan Academy in 2020.
iCeMS Director
Motonari Uesugi
Professor and iCeMS Director
Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Biochemistry, Kyoto University.
After completing postdoctoral training in Harvard Chemistry Department, Uesugi started his independent career in Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, where he has established an interdisciplinary laboratory in the area of chemical biology. He was tenured in Baylor in 2005, and moved to Kyoto University as a full professor in 2005.
Uesugi and his co-workers have been discovering or designing unique organic molecules that modulate or interrogate fundamental processes in human cells. In particular, he has a special interest in combining chemical biology and material science concepts to open new avenues in cell biology and medical applications.
He is a recipient of Tokyo Techno Forum 21 Gold Medal Award (2006), German Innovation Award (2011), and Ichimura Award (2017).
ASHBi Director
Mitinori Saitou
Professor and ASHBi Director
M.D., Ph.D., Kyoto University. Saitou served as Team Leader at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology. After serving as Professor at the Graduate School of Medicine at Kyoto University, he moved into his current position with the establishment of ASHBi in 2018.
He is engaged in research on clarifying developmental mechanisms of germ cells that are the origin of all life and their reconstitution in vitro, as well as the evolution of genomic and epigenomic regulatory mechanisms in germ cells.
Saitou was awarded the Takeda Prize for Medical Science in 2016, and received the Asahi Prize, Uehara Prize, Imperial Prize and Japan Academy Prize, and the Momentum Award from the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) in 2020. He is an associate member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).
