Person of the Week
130 news
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2019-11-13
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Hidetoshi Nishimori
I am a Professor at the Institute of Innovative Research, Tokyo Institute of Technology. I obtained my degrees, BSc, MSc, and DSc, from the Department of Physics of the University of Tokyo. After a stint as a postdoctoral fellow at Carnegie-Mellon University and Rutgers University in the United States, I returned to Japan and have been working at Tokyo Institute of Technology, mostly at the Physics Department but I recently moved to the Institute of Innovative Research as the head of the Quantum Computing Research Unit. My main interest has been the theory of spin glasses, a typical hard problem of equilibrium statistical mechanics, especially exact results derived by using a special type of symmetry. I am recently more interested in quantum annealing, a quantum-mechanical paradigm to solve combinatorial optimization problems, a typical example of which is the ground-state search of spin glasses. This is a very exciting field not just because of the big attention from the society to quantum computing in general, but also due to the very interdisciplinary characteristics of the field in that very basic theoretical results are sometimes immediately implemented in real devices, typically the D-Wave quantum annealer, thus affecting the performance of the device in real-world industrial applications. I hope the stimulating environment of iTHEMS to further broaden the scope my research activities, leading to unexpected developments that are hard to be achieved elsewhere.
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2019-11-11
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Takashi Sakajo
I am a full professor of Department of mathematics at Kyoto University, and a project professor of Liaison Center in Mathematics in RIMS at Kyoto University. From Nov. 2019, I am appointed to a senior visiting scientist at RIKEN iTHEMS. My educational background in undergraduate/graduate courses at Kyoto University was mathematics, but I have been keeping strong interests in the other fields of sciences. My expertise in research is applied mathematics, especially mathematical fluid dynamics, in which I would like to understand highly nonlinear and complex fluid phenomena observed in the evolutions of incompressible fluid motions from mathematical points of view theoretically as well as numerically. In addition to those academic topics, I am keen to conduct many interdisciplinary studies with people from the other disciplines (meteorology, medical, material science etc.) and industries. I am the chief coordinator of Math Clinic at MACS program in Kyoto University. These interdisciplinary activities are not just for applying existing mathematical theories, but for exploring new future problems for mathematical sciences from modern world. I am very happy to be a member of iTHEMS, where I can share the same interests with the members. Research Topics: • Topological Flow Data Analysis • Dissipative weak solutions of the Euler equations and turbulence theory • Vortex dynamics • Flow control of vortex dominated flows • Singularity formation and long-time behavior of vortex dynamics • Applied and computational complex analysis (ACCA) • Uncertainty Quantification (Data Assimilations) • Interdisciplinary Studies (Meteorology, Medical, Industrial problems)
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2019-09-30
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Enrico Rinaldi
I am Enrico Rinaldi, a part-time researcher in iTHEMS, who was previously a SPDR fellow in RIKEN BNL and Quantum Hadron Physics Laboratory. My expertise is Monte Carlo numerical simulations of quantum field theories, also known as Lattice Field Theory simulations, which use massively parallel supercomputers (CPU and GPU-based) around the world to solve the complex equations hiding the mysteries of particle physics. My research is focused on understanding high energy strongly-coupled gauged theories, in particular in the context of extensions of the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics, like Dark Matter physics or theories of Composite Higgs. New discoveries are hinging on the theoreticians’ ability to make predictions that can be tested by experimentalists, and that is precisely the my goal. I am also engaged in projects related to low-energy nuclear physics, for example calculating nucleon-nucleon interactions or nuclear form-factors directly from the theory of Quantum Chromo-Dynamics (QCD). Moreover, I have been working on matrix models to study the gauge/gravity duality conjecture with the aim of understanding the possible intriguing relation between gauge theories and quantum gravity. I am currently researching new Machine Learning (ML) approaches to physics, mainly based on the promising rise of generative models. The aim is to improve our ability to get access to multi-dimensional parametric distributions describing physical systems with specific models.
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2019-09-12
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Hirotaka Irie
I am Hirotaka Irie, a research scientist in quantum computing team of DENSO Corporation. From this summer of 2019, I also became a visiting scientist here at RIKEN iTHEMS. I received my Ph.D. in Physics (string theory) at Kyoto University in 2008, and worked as postdoc in KEK, National Taiwan University, National Center for Theoretical Physics (NCTS, Taiwan), and Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics (Kyoto University), where my research focused on non-perturbative aspects of string theory and mathematical physics. Now I joined DENSO Corporation, working toward real-world applications of quantum mechanical computing machines with combining aspects of mathematical physics and string theory. In fact, recent industrial studies also require highly sophisticated physical and mathematical researches. Here, I hope to discuss and collaborate with people in iTHEMS to jointly achieve new technological breakthrough which changes our daily life and society.
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2019-05-18
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Keita Mikami
I am Keita Mikami, a research scientist at iTHEMS. My research field is partial differential equations and I work on linear Schrödinger equation. Main subject in the research of linear Schrödinger equation is its spectrum. I have studied localization in direction phenomena of Schrödinger operators with homogeneous potentials of order zero. Roughly speaking, this is a phenomena such that a solution to Schrödinger equation with this class of potentials localizes in direction as time goes to infinity. I have used spectral theory and semiclassical(microlocal) analysis to understand this phenomena and its application. Though my interest comes from mathematics, I want to understand physical aspects of Schrödinger equations and find some application of my results in physics since Schrödinger equation is the governing equation in quantum mechanics.
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2019-05-11
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Kanato Goto
My name is Kanato Goto and I have been working at iTHEMS since April 2019. I am a theoretical physicist studying string theory and my main research interests lie in foundational questions about quantum gravity, black hole physics, and supersymmetric quantum field theories. I am currently trying to understand the basic mechanism and the mysteries of the holographic principle, which states that information about gravity and the spacetime contained in our three-dimensional universe can be completely described by the two-dimensional boundary surrounding it, just like a hologram emerges from a sheet of photographic film. At iTHEMS, I hope to broaden my research horizon through discussions with researchers in various fields.
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2019-04-26
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Kenta Sato
Hello, I am Kenta Sato. My major is mathematics, in particular algebraic geometry. In algebraic geometry, we study algebraic varieties, which are defined as the zero sets of polynomial equations. When you hear polynomials, you may imagine polynomials whose coefficients are integers, rational numbers, or complex numbers. But, it sometimes important to consider polynomials whose coefficients are in some other field, for example a field with positive characteristic. I have been studying polynomials, rings and algebraic varieties over a field with positive characteristic. In particular, I am interested in F-singularities and globally F-regular varieties, which are defined in terms of positive characteristic methods. I also hope to find some application of positive characteristic methods to problems in mathematics and other areas.
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2019-04-24
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Hiroshi Yokota
I am Hiroshi Yokota, a physicist, who have joined iTHEMS since April, 2019. For 5 years, I have investigated a polymer physics, especially, theoretical framework of polymer crystallization. The polymer is a string-like large molecules whose characteristics play important roles in crystallization process. In contrast to the conventional crystal such as metals, the polymer crystal is a solid composed of crystal and amorphous regions due to the characteristics of the string-like molecules, where the polymer crystal is applied to production of industrial products, for example, films and threads (stuff of our clothes). In iTHEMS, by using the knowledge of polymer crystallization and of theoretical treatments of the polymer chain, I will investigate biophysics, especially, dynamics of the formation of the chromosomes.
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2019-04-15
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Takuya Sugiura
My name is Takuya Sugiura and I have been working at iTHEMS/RIKEN since April 2019. My main interest is on theoretical hadron physics, including interactions between hadrons, exotic hadrons, and heavy-quark systems. I am currently working on lattice QCD calculations of hadron interactions. Here at RIKEN I hope to see people from many different backgrounds; this will be a great opportunity to broaden my knowledge and scientific views.
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2019-04-05
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Nagisa Hiroshima
Hello, I am Nagisa Hiroshima. I have joined the iTHEMS from April 2019. My research interest covers varieties of topics in the Universe such as dark matter, structures of galaxies, and gamma-ray emitting objects. I am now working on dark matter search in the Universe with gamma-ray observations combining theoretical methods. I would like to have lots of daily discussions and to try much wider topics here.
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2019-04-04
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Hokuto Konno
I have been working in the mathematical study of gauge theory. In particular, I have developed Seiberg-Witten theory and Yang-Mills theory for families of 4-dimensional manifolds, and used them to examine the topology and geometry of such families. One of typical objects studied using gauge theory for families is the space consisting of all symmetries of a given 4-dimensional manifold. The space of symmetries is a natural mathematical object, but at the same time, this space is an infinite-dimensional complicated space in general, and consequently quite hard to attack. Interestingly, some of my recent work with several groups revealed that we can extract information about the space of symmetries of some 4-dimensional manifolds using gauge theory for families. I am trying to go ahead with this direction, and also to develop other aspects of gauge theory, relating to a sort of topological quantum field theory.
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2019-03-11
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Ryosuke Iritani
Hi, what's up! I'm Ryosuke (Ryo) Iritani. I'm originally from Kobe and did my biology and math undergrad at Kyoto University in Japan. I started my Ph.D. with Yoh Iwasa at Kyushu University in 2011 and worked as a research fellow (DC1) from 2013, visiting Lausanne (Switzerland) and Montpellier (France) to improve my theoretical skills. I then received Ph.D. in 2016 and started my postdoc at the University of California, Berkeley (as a fellow at the University of Exeter, the UK). I am broadly interested in the field of evolutionary ecology, with a special focus on evolutionary game theory in structured populations. I usually start with my modelings with a motivation to understand ecological phenomena, but I am really keen on developing the general theory of evolutionary ecology. I believe scientific collaboration is the prerequisite to do "good" science, and am therefore always open to collaboration opportunities. My current office is at Kyoto University, so please come talk to me. I like coffee, soccer, typographical fonts, cooking, math, and living organisms (with a special passion for insects).
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2019-02-28
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Yuki Koyanagi
Hi everyone. My name is Yuki Koyanagi and I am a visiting student at iTHEMS. My research interest is the study of protein structures, specifically how we can predict local structures of a protein from its sequence of amino acid residues. Knowing the structure of protein is important, because we know that a protein's function is highly dependent on its structure. A protein is made up of lots of amino acids connected like a chain, which then folds itself to a three-dimensional structure. One of the important factors that determine the folding is hydrogen bonds, that form at different places along the chain. I am looking into how we can predict the structure around each hydrogen bond. Another related question is finding out how many different hydrogen bond structures are possible for a given sequence of amino acids. I am a mathematician and work at a mathematics research centre, the interdisciplinary environment at iTHEMS is something new to me. I am very excited about the opportunity of meeting people from different fields with different backgrounds.
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2019-01-17
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Hiroyasu Miyazaki
Hello, everyone! My name is Hiroyasu Miyazaki. I am a mathematician. I mainly study algebraic varieties, which are geometric objects formed by the solutions of algebraic equations. To capture some essential information on algebraic varieties, it is useful to consider their group-theoretic incarnations, called (co)homology groups. Among the many versions of cohomologies, there is a universal one: the motive theory. It has been used to study common properties of cohomologies and their relationship. However, it has been observed that the motive theory loses some important arithmetic information of algebraic varieties. I am trying to overcome this problem by generalizing the motive theory. I was a member of iTHES in 2017. After that, I stayed at IMJ-PRG in Paris for one year, and came back to iTHEMS. I am really glad to join you again, and looking forward to many exciting discussions!
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2018-11-27
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Eren Mehmet Kiral
Hello, I am Eren Mehmet Kıral, I am currently a JSPS fellow at Sophia University working with Prof. Nakasuji on Bruhat cell decompositions of various matrix groups with a view towards finding number theoretic applications. I am also a visiting scientist here at ITHEMS. Starting March 2020 I will be an SPDR at RIKEN working at the Mathematical Science team of Advanced Intelligence Project (AIP) with Prof. Bannai. My research interest is in automorphic forms, and their associated L-functions, including the Riemann zeta function. Automorphic forms can be thought of generalizations of harmonics. Just like sin(nx), cos(nx) are the periodic harmonics on the real line, automorphic forms are the harmonics on more general homogeneous spaces. However unlike the real line, the group of transformations on the space forms a non-commutative Lie group, and hence the harmonic analysis (or equivalently the representation theory) on this group is more involved. It is fascinating that simply the setup of a discrete subgroup sitting inside a homogeneous space, spawns objects that are intrinsically related to number theory. I am looking forward to talking to physicists who work with Lie group representations on a regular basis.
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2018-11-21
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Yongjia Huang
I am Yongjia Huang, an International Program Associate (IPA) student studying in iTHEMS. My research interest is to explore what are the new states of matter at exceedingly high density and temperature. In the universe, various compact objects can reach more extreme condition than laboratory, thus they would be ideal candidates. I am studying the GRMHD simulation of binary neutron stars and neutron star-black hole mergers, which would generate various observable outcomes like gravitational wave (GW) radiation, kilonova, outflow and so on. With the GW astronomy era in progress, we would have a good chance to get the information like chirp mass and tidal deformability of the objects. Combining the GW data with the simulation works, then we can determine the equation of state of neutron stars efficiently. I am glad to have colleagues from different fields, and I believe our communication would play an important role in research.
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2018-11-02
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Masahiro Nozaki
Hi everyone. My name is Masahiro Nozaki. I am a Special Postdoctoral Researchers at iTHEMS. I worked in YITP, Kyoto University as a JSPS fellow, and then in The Kadanoff Center for Theoretical Physics, The University of Chicago as a Kadanoff Center fellow. I have been studying theoretical physics such as holography and non-equilibrium physics in terms of quantum entanglement. Currently, I am interested in and studying quantum chaos, scrambling and so on. I am very happy if I can interact with researchers in iTHEMS, broaden my research fields, and have fruitful collaborations!!
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2018-09-10
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Gen Kurosawa
My name is Gen Kurosawa. I study “Biological Timing”. We know timing of meal influences timing of sleep. Similarly, we know timing of taking medicine influences its efficacy. We know these facts, but we do not really know why. To answer these questions, my approach is to use two types of models. Mainly, I try to develop simpler models to understand the essence in Biological Timing. Simultaneously, I use realistic models (ex. 180 variable ODE model with genes and proteins) to make detailed predictions which can be tested experimentally in a very near future. At iTHEMS, I am happy that I can interact with colleagues from various disciplines.
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2018-08-14
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Takumi Doi
My name is Takumi Doi. My main research subject is to unravel the mysteries of nuclear forces from the fundamental theory, quantum chromodynamics (QCD), and hereby to establish the bridge between different hierarchies in physics, from quarks to nuclei and cosmos. In my research, I employ the so-called lattice QCD method, which can perform the first-principles calculation of QCD by numerical computations. Nowadays, numerical computations serve a unique role not only to bridge the theory and phenomena but also to bridge different fields of science. iTHEMS is hosting good computational resources to pursue such interdisciplinary studies, and I wish to support your computational studies and seek new collaborations at iTHEMS.
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2018-08-06
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Don Warren
I grew up in America, but lived in Japan for a year before starting my Ph.D. course. I earned my doctorate at NC State University, studying cosmic ray acceleration and the morphology of supernova remnants. I currently study the afterglows of gamma-ray bursts, focusing on applying modern numerical results to the existing model for afterglow emission. My other interests include virtual reality as a tool for scientific visualization, and science communication to the public. I also recently embarked on a project in virology, with iTHEMS' Catherine Beauchemin.
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2018-07-30
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Jeffrey Fawcett
My name is Jeffrey Fawcett and I've been working at iTHEMS since March 2018. My main interest is Genome Evolution, and I work on or have worked on a broad range of topics related to genomics, evolution, genetics, bioinformatics, and systems biology. I am a Biologist and have always been working in an environment surrounded by Biologists. So joining iTHEMS and being surrounded by so many physicists, mathematicians, formulas, blackboards, and blackholes is quite a transition for me. Yet, it is very stimulating and challenging, and I am so far enjoying this unique opportunity where I get to work alongside people with totally different backgrounds and hear about so many different topics that I would never have the chance to in a normal research environment.
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2018-07-09
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Yosuke Kubota
I am Yosuke KUBOTA, a mathematician who have joined the iTHEMS from 2017. I'm basically working in the area of mathematics called index theory or noncommutative geometry (NCG), which has developed highly abstract theory related with a wide variety of other mathematics such as operator algebra, topology, geometry, group theory and mathematical physics. For example, a mathematics of topological insulators is one of the branches of NCG. I aspire to apply the theory of NCG to practical problems in mathematics and other areas. Please feel free to talk to me anytime.
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2018-07-02
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Jason Chang
I am Jason Chang, a research scientist at iTHEMS. I received my bachelors and PhD in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During my PhD, my focus was on calculating the hadronic contributions to flavor physics using lattice quantum chromodynamics (LQCD). Afterwards, I joined the LQCD group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) to understand the contributions of the strong interaction in nuclear matter. My interests have since then also extended to explore the possibility of applying quantum annealing to machine learning techniques, and as led to new collaborations with scientists from condensed matter and quantum information science. I am very happy to join iTHEMS, and as a member who is primarily located at LBNL, I look forward to hosting and working with anyone interested in visiting the Bay Area for both the collaboration opportunities with scientists here, as well as industry experts around this area.
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2018-06-25
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Shun Furusawa
Hello, I am Shun Furusawa, a special postdoctoral researcher of iTHEMS. I received a PhD at Waseda University in September 2013 and then I worked at NAOJ and FIAS as a posdoc. My research area is Nuclear Astrophysics. I am interested in birth, life, and death of various stars and related nuclear physics. At present, I am working on death of massive stars and birth of quark stars. I am looking forward to chatting and discussing with the iTHEMS members.
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2018-06-18
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Genki Ouchi
I am Genki Ouchi, a SPDR of iTHEMS. I am a mathematician. My research field is algebraic geometry. In algebraic geometry, we study algebraic varieties, that is, spaces described by algebraic equations. Recently, I am interested in symmetry of algebraic varieties: infinite symmetry via complex dynamics and finite symmetry via finite groups. When I study such subjects, I often use mathematical notion related to string theory like derived categories of coherent sheaves, Bridgeland stability conditions and elliptic genera etc. I would like to find interesting geometric phenomena inspired by outside of algebraic geometry. Moreover, I am happy if there are application of algebras (or mathematics) to other research fields.
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2018-06-11
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Ade Irma Suriajaya
Hello! My name is Ade Irma Suriajaya but people usually call me simply Chacha. I am originally from Indonesia and I made the nickname from my Chinese name, another name I have which is not officially registered, except in my college documents. I went to Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in China after graduating from high school in Indonesia to pursue undergraduate study in Aeronautical Engineering. I was attracted to Mathematics in just my first month, thanks to the very interesting Calculus class I had back then. I got my first opportunity to study pure mathematics two years later when I got a scholarship for a one-year academic exchange program in Nagoya University in Japan. However I could not do that without sufficient Japanese proficiency, but I was finally able to take basic pure mathematics courses (designed for third semester students) the next semester, and I made up my mind to change my major to Mathematics. Nevertheless, there was no pure mathematics major in my home university in China and during the last year of my undergraduate study, I was taking only mathematics classes offered by the applied mathematics major (the official name was not Applied Mathematics). I managed to come back to Japan the year after, soon after I got my bachelor degree to finally, officially start my path in mathematics. This year marks the seventh year I work in analytic number theory. My main research interest is the analytic properties of zeta functions and L-functions such as, location of zeros and distribution of values of these special functions. I am very delighted to be a part of iTHEMS where I get to easily communicate with other theoretical scientists. I used to be more into Physics and Chemistry when I was in middle school and high school and I am very happy to get to know lots of new things, not only in those fields, but also in other fields of science. Furthermore, I am mostly excited to be able to collaborate with other scientists and hopefully apply my (still very very limited) knowledge in mathematics and also probably, the more limited knowledge in engineering or applied mathematics.
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2018-06-04
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Tomoki Ozawa
I am Tomoki Ozawa, a senior research scientist at iTHEMS. I am originally from Japan. I finished my PhD in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the US, and then spent five years as a postdoc at the BEC Center (Bose-Einstein Condensation Center) at the University of Trento in Italy. Then, after spending three months in Brussels, Belgium, I came back to Japan and joined RIKEN iTHEMS this April. My main research interest is in the intersection between condensed matter theory and AMO (Atomic, Molecuar and Optics) theory. In particular, I have been working on many-body and topological physics of ultracold atomic gases and photonics. My style of research is to try to understand target systems in as simple way as possible; this sounds rather trivial, but it often leads to something unexpected in the end. In iTHEMS, I hope to collaborate with people from various backgrounds and start something exciting together.
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2018-05-28
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Masaru Hongo
I am Masaru Hongo, a theoretical physicist working on nonequilibrium physics. My main interest is hydrodynamics and its possible generalizations to more general nonequilibrium systems. Hydrodynamics universally describes a lot of phenomena seen in the world. Its application covers not only simple liquids in our daily life, but also the extremely high temperature plasma (the so-called quark-gluon plasma which reaches at several trillion Kelvin). Since our fluid is composed of atoms/molecules, or extremely elementary particles described by quantum theory, it is interesting to consider how we can understand the gap between two descriptions. I have studied to bridge this gap between hydrodynamics, which gives a macroscopic description of systems, and quantum field theories, which is a fundamental microscopic theory considered to be state-of-the-art atomism. Based on the recent development of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, I have provided a solid basis for relativistic hydrodynamics. I am now working on how we can describe the more general nonequilibrium systems. I am happy if we are interacting with each other, and have fruitful collaborations!
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2018-05-21
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Takashi Okada
I am Takashi Okada. I am a senior research scientist of iTHEMS from this spring. Previously, I was a postdoc researcher of Mochizuki Theoretical Biology Laboratory (April 2014 to March 2018). My original background is theoretical physics, and, before I came to Mochizuki Laboratory, I researched on particle physics and super string theory. Now, my main research subject is theoretical biology, and, especially, I am interested in biological networks, such as gene regulatory networks, metabolic networks, and signal transduction networks. I would like to understand how today’s biological networks arise through evolutionary processes. I think that iTHEMS is the best environment to study theoretical biology because life science is a very broad field that involves mathematics, physics, chemistry, statistics, and so on. I would like to learn a lot through interaction with iTHEMS members. Also, I am very happy if we can collaborate with each other.
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2018-05-14
Person of the Week
Self-introduction: Yoshiyuki Inoue
Hello everyone. My name is Yoshiyuki Inoue. I am a senior research scientist at iTHEMS/RIKEN. Previously, I was a JSPS fellow at KIPAC/SLAC/Stanford, and then an International Top Young Fellow at ISAS/JAXA. My research is theoretical astrophysics which is closely connected to observations. I am interested in understanding the nature of supermassive black holes. Here at iTHEMS, I would like to link theory and observations more tightly. I am also hoping to broaden my research fields through interdisciplinary interactions at iTHEMS.
130 news