Faculty

DEGUCHI Atushi

Professor

Dr Deguchi received his PhD degree in 1990 from Graduate School of Engineering at The　University of Tokyo. After working as an assistant professor at The University of Tokyo, he　became an associate professor and then a professor at Kyushu University. He assumed his　current position in 2011. He specializes in urban planning and design. His research　subjects include smart cities, compact cities, and public space design and management.　He won the Grand Prix at the 1987 IFHP International Student Design Competition, and the　Ishikawa Award at the 2015 and 2016 City Planning Institute of Japan Awards. He is the　Director of Urban Design Center Kashiwanoha (UDCK) in Kashiwanoha District, where the Kashiwa Campus of The University of Tokyo is located, and the Director of Kashiwanoha Smart City Consortium. He has currently served as Secretary General of Asian Planning Schools Association (APSA) since 2015, and as President of City Planning Institute of Japan (CPIJ) in 2020 and 2021.
https://researchmap.jp/atsushi-deguchi

DROZ Layna

Project Assistant Professor

Layna Droz grew up in Switzerland, where she took her first steps in environmental politics. In 2015, she entered the master's program in International Environmental Management at Kyoto University and received her PhD from Kyoto University in March 2020 for a thesis on cross-cultural environmental ethics. She worked as multilingual communication consultant with the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) before joining the Basque Center for Climate Change in Spain and the Rachel Carson Center in Germany as postdoc researcher funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. She started working as Project Assistant Professor for the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences and the Sustainable Society Design Center in October 2022. Her research interests include the meta-ethics of environmentalism, the philosophy of biodiversity science & conservation and intercultural science communication. She enjoys mountain activities, swimming and playing music.
https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/en/people/k0001_04710.html

HIEKATA Kazuo

Professor

Born in Kanagawa prefecture. After completing his master's degree in engineering at the University of Tokyo in March 2000, he worked on the development of Linux operating systems at the Software Development Laboratory of IBM Japan, Ltd. He became an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Engineering in 2004 and received his doctorate in 2008. In 2010, he became an associate professor at the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences in and in 2021 a professor. He has been a visiting researcher at MIT for a year since June 2013. He is involved in solving industrial and social problems using system design methodologies, as well as in the application of information technology. He enjoys playing the drums (which he has not played for 20 years now). On his days off, he enjoys swimming and other physical activities to stay healthy.
https://www.k.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/gsfs/faculty/kazuo_hiekata/

ISHIHARA Hiroe

Associate Professor

Dr Ishihara spent her childhood in the UK and Tanzania. After completing a master's degree at Hitotsubashi University, she started work as a programme officer at the United Nations Development Programme in Yemen in 2003. In 2006, she entered the master's programme in Environmental Policy at the Department of Land Economy at the University of Cambridge and received her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2016. During her PhD work, she also worked as a researcher at the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies and the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature. In 2016, she joined the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Tokyo as a project-funded postdoc researcher. After working as an Assistant Professor for three years, she became the associate professor for the Sustainable Society Design Center at the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences in May 2022. Her research spans a variety of topics and includes biodiversity conservation, ecosystem service assessment and sustainable supply chains. Her hobby is yoga.
https://www.k.u-tokyo.ac.jp/gsfs/faculty/hiroe_ishihara/

Professor

After graduating from the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Liberal Arts in 1990, Dr Kameyama joined Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co.(formerly The Tokyo Marine and Fire Insurance Company). She moved into research in 1992 when she started work at the National Institute for Environmental Studies before being cross appointed as the professor of the Sustainable Society Design Center, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, the University of Tokyo in May 2022. Her area of expertise is in international relations, with a research focus on climate change negotiations. Dr Kameyama obtained a PhD from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1997. From 1999 to 2000, she was a fellow in the Department of Political Science at the University of Maryland, USA. Her hobbies include running (less than 20 km), mountain-climbing (hiking) and listening to music (Southern All Stars etc.).
https://www.k.u-tokyo.ac.jp/gsfs/faculty/yasuko_kameyama/

KURITA Takuya

Project Professor

Born in Osaka Prefecture, Dr. Kurita joined the Ministry of Construction after graduating from the Faculty of Law, Kyoto University, in 1984. After working as a seconded to Miyazaki Prefecture, Secretary to the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Counselor at the Prime Minister's Office, and Director of the City bureau, he was appointed Director General of the Policy Bureau in 2015, Director General of the Policy Planning Bureau in 2018, and Administrative Vice Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in 2020, retiring from the ministry in 2021. Since then, he has served as a Project Professor at Habitat Innovation Research Program, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo. He holds an MPhil Degree from the department of Land Economy, Cambridge University and a Doctor Degree from the Graduate School of Engineering, Chiba University. His hobbies include reading, running, golf, skiing, and guitar.

NAKAMURA Fumihiko

Project Professor

Graduated from the Department of Urban Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, the　University of Tokyo in 1985. After dropping out of graduate school in 1989, he worked as a　research associate at the University of Tokyo. In 1995, he became an associate professor　at Yokohama National University (a professor from 2004) after working for the Asian　Institute of Technology for two years. In 2021, he became a project professor at Social　Collaboration Course on Smart City Design Research, Graduate School of Frontier　Sciences, the University of Tokyo. From 2022, he concurrently holds a position at the　Sustainable Society Design Center as well. He specializes in urban transportation planning.　He got his PhD from the graduate school of Engineering, the University of Tokyo, in 1991.　Since 2011, he serves as a Visiting Professor at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. He enjoys playing the piano at live music houses. https://researchmap.jp/fumihikonakamura1962https://researchmap.jp/fumihikonakamura1962
https://researchmap.jp/fumihikonakamura1962

SAITO Eiko

Associate Professor

Born in Aomori Prefecture, Japan, she graduated from International Christian University in 1996. Following her graduation, she joined the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers to serve as a community volunteer in Nepal. Subsequently, she worked at UNICEF Yemen and UNICEF Myanmar and completed a Master's program in Social Policy at the London School of Economics. In 2014, she obtained a PhD from the Graduate School of Medicine at the University of Tokyo (PhD in Health Science). She then worked as an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo for three years, and served as a staff scientist at the National Cancer Center and the National Center for Global Health and Medicine. In April 2024, she became an associate professor at the Sustainable Society Design Center at the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences. Her areas of expertise include health economics and epidemiology, with a research focus on healthcare and sustainability. In her free time, she enjoys practicing Tai Chi.
https://researchmap.jp/eiko_saito?lang=en

WADA Ryota

Associate Professor

Born in Osaka, Japan. After completing his master's degree in Engineering at the University of Tokyo in 2007, he worked in oil trading business at Mitsubishi Corporation. He received his PhD in Environmental Studies at the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences in 2013. His research field is in statistics in ocean engineering and research interests include uncertainty quantification of natural random phenomena using extreme value analysis and stochastic process, and uncertainty reduction using Bayesian inference. He is also working on establishing model-based design and co-creation of technology roadmaps for social implementation of complex and uncertain ocean utilization systems such as offshore CCS, carbon-neutral offshore resource development, and ocean renewable energy. He enjoys playing softball.
https://www.k.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/gsfs/faculty/ryota_wada/

ZHANG Runsen

Associate Professor

Dr. Zhang received his Ph.D. degree in science in 2012 from the School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences at Nanjing University, and a Ph.D. degree in engineering in 2015 from the Graduate School of Engineering at Kyoto University. Since 2015, he worked as a researcher at Kyoto University and a research associate at the National Institute for Environmental Studies. After working as an Assistant Professor at the Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation and the Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Hiroshima University since 2018, he became an associate professor at the Sustainable Society Design Center of the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences in September 2022. He specializes in infrastructure planning and management, with a research focus on low-carbon urban and transport planning, land use-transport interaction modeling, E3 (Energy-Environment-Economy) models, climate change and energy studies.
https://www.k.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/gsfs/faculty/runsen_zhang/