OIST Graduation Ceremony 2018

The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) held its second graduation ceremony on 25 May 2019.

Links

The University

The University

OIST is international, with over 50 nationalities working onsite. Over 60% of faculty come from outside Japan, and the working language is English. OIST produces highly trained young scientists who are completely at ease in the global environment of science and industry.

OIST is committed to interdisciplinary research. The university encourages faculty, researchers, and students from diverse fields to share ideas, methods, and experience in collaborative initiatives that break through the restrictive barriers of traditional scientific disciplines.

To ensure that new research progress is readily applied in industry and high technology entrepreneurship, OIST works closely with the Okinawa Prefectural Government and industry to develop a self-sustaining, high technology economy on the island. Due to OIST, Okinawa is becoming recognized as a center for excellence in Science and Technology.

Close-up of the weaver's hands as she makes the red and white obi sash.

Academic Dress

Academic dress is part of a tradition spanning a thousand years of history, connecting us to the first universities in Europe. Originally the daily dress worn by students and professors alike, their use more recently has been restricted to formal occasions of the university.

The OIST academic dress was designed entirely by the students, and follows the red, white and black of the OIST colors. The hood, worn only by OIST PhD graduates, features a local textile, called Yuntanza Minsa using "Guushi-Bana" method, again in red, white and black. The design of the hood combines local auspicious patterns for luck in money and life, and stylized sine waves representing the sciences.

The hoods were generously hand-woven from locally hand-dyed cotton by Ms. Misae Gakiya from Yuntanza Hanaui, a craft weavers guild from Yomitan, and we thank them for their wonderful contribution.

Program

Saturday, 25th May 2019
OIST Auditorium

1:30 pm

  • Auditorium doors open

2:00 pm

  • Musical Introduction and Academic Procession

2:10 pm

  • Welcome by Dr. Peter Gruss, President of OIST Graduate University
  • Message from Mr. Mitsuhiro Miyakoshi, Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs
  • Message from Mr. Denny Tamaki, Governor of Okinawa Prefecture
  • Commencement Address by Sir Paul Nurse, Director of the Francis Crick Institute, London

2:50 pm

  • Presentation of Honorary Degree to Prof Svante Pääbo, Director of Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

3:10 pm

  • Musical Interlude

3:20 pm

  • Interval Break

3:35 pm

  • Musical Interlude

3:40 pm

  • Conferment of Ph.D. Degrees, Introduced by Prof. Ulf Skoglund, Dean of the Graduate School

4:30 pm

  • Speech by Dr. Jessica Verena Schulze, Graduating Student

4:35 pm

  • Closing Remarks by Dr. Cherry Murray, Chair of the OIST Board of Governors

4:40 pm

  • Musical Finale

4:45 pm

  • Academic Procession and Close

Commencement Speaker

Paul Nurse, gray-haired caucasian male, smiling with a facility in the background

Sir Paul Nurse

Sir Paul Nurse, 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Director of the Francis Crick Institute, London

Paul Nurse is a geneticist and cell biologist who has worked on how the eukaryotic cell cycle is controlled. His major work has been on the cyclin dependent protein kinases and how they regulate cell reproduction. He is Director of the Francis Crick Institute in London, and has served as President of the Royal Society, Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK and President of Rockefeller University. He shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Leland Hartwell and Tim Hunt, and has received the Albert Lasker Award, the Gairdner Award, the Louis Jeantet Prize and the Royal Society's Royal and Copley Medals. He was knighted by The Queen in 1999, received the Legion d'Honneur in 2003 from France, and the Order of the Rising Sun in 2018 from Japan. He served for 15 years on the Council of Science and Technology, advising the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and is presently a Chief Scientific Advisor for the European Union and a trustee of the British Museum. Paul flies gliders and vintage aeroplanes and has been a qualified bush pilot. He also likes the theatre, hill-walking, going to museums and art galleries, and running very slowly.

Sir Paul Nurse was introduced by Sir Tim Hunt.

Graduates

  • Lashmi Piriya Ananda Babu

    Supervisor:
    Professor Tomoyuki Takahashi

    Co-supervisor:
    Professor Jeff Wickens

    Research Unit:
    Cellular & Molecular Synaptic Function Unit

    Thesis:
    Functional roles of microtubules in a giant presynaptic terminal

  • Chris Reinke

    Supervisor:
    Professor Kenji Doya

    Research Unit:
    Neural Computation Unit

    Thesis:
    The Gamma-Ensemble - Adaptive reinforcement learning via modular discounting

  • Dongrong Zhang

    Supervisor:
    Professor Gustavo Gioia

    Research Unit:
    Continuum Physics Unit

    Thesis:
    Spectral theory of turbulent flows 

  • E Laine Wong

    Supervisor:
    Professor Keshav Dani

    Research Unit:
    Femtosecond Spectroscopy Unit

    Thesis:
    Ultrafast spatiotemporal control of photocarriers in doped semiconductors

  • Kalale Chola

    Supervisor:
    Professor Tsumoru Shintake

    Research Unit:
    Quantum Wave Microscopy Unit

    Thesis:
    Development of an SPH variant of implicit LES for studying wave energy transport

  • Tsai-Ming Lu

    Supervisor:
    Professor Noriyuki Satoh

    Research Unit:
    Marine Genomics Unit

    Thesis:
    Comparative genomic studies on Dicyema japonicum: the phylogenetic position of dicyemids and the genomic adaptations to parasitic lifestyle

  • Jui-Yin Lin

    Supervisor:
    Professor Denis Konstantinov

    Research Unit:
    Quantum Dynamics Unit

    Thesis:
    Transport properties of strongly correlated 2D electrons confined in microchannels

  • Ray Xin Lee

    Supervisor:
    Professor Bernd Kuhn

    Co-supervisor:
    Professor Greg Stephens

    Research Unit:
    Optical Neuroimaging Unit

    Thesis:
    Nature and source of animal spontaneous behaviors: Insights from psychobehavioral development and neuronal population dynamics in mice

  • Patricia Himeka Wepfer Suzuki

    Supervisor:
    Professor Satoshi Mitarai

    Co-supervisor:
    Professor Evan Economo

    Research Unit:
    Marine Biophysics Unit

    Thesis:
    Spatial genetic structure in the coral genus Galaxea (Euphyllidae) and their associated Symbiodiniaceae communities

  • Jessica Verena Schulze

    Supervisor:
    Professor Kenji Doya

    Research Unit:
    Neural Computational Unit

    Thesis:
    Spatial and modular regularization in effective connectivity inference from neural activity data

  • Hiroaki Hamada

    Supervisor:
    Professor Kenji Doya

    Co-supervisor:
    Professor Greg Stephens

    Research Unit:
    Neural Computational Unit

    Thesis:
    Serotonergic control of brain-wide dynamics

  • Masakazu Igarashi

    Supervisor:
     Professor Jeffery Wickens

    Research Unit:
    Neurobiology Research Unit 

    Thesis:
    The role of interhemispheric cortico-cortical connections in bimanual coordination in the rat

  • Abudukeyoumu Nilupaer

    Supervisor:
    Professor Gordon Arbuthnott

    Research Unit:
    Brain Mechanism for Behaviour Unit

    Thesis:
    Cholinergic interneurons in striatal microcircuit dynamics studied with anatomical and behavioral methods

  • Kazuto Kawamura

    Supervisor:
    Professor Ichiro Maruyama

    Research Unit:
    Information Processing Biology Unit

    Thesis:
    Forward genetic screen for Caenorhabditis elegans mutants with a progressive decline in adult locomotor function

  • Tosif Ahamed

    Supervisor:
    Professor Ichiro Maruyama

    Co-supervisor:
    Professor Greg Stephens

    Research Unit:
    Information Processing Biology Unit

    Thesis:
    Capturing the nonlinear dynamics of animal behavior with applications to the nematode C. elegans

  • Haytham Mohamed

    Supervisor:
    Professor Tadashi Yamamoto

    Research Unit:
    Cell Signal Unit

    Thesis:
    Post-transcriptional regulation of circadian rhythm: Involvement of the CCR4-NOT complex

  • Irina Reshodko

    Supervisor:
    Professor Thomas Busch

    Research Unit:
    Quantum Systems Unit

    Thesis:
    State engineering in one-dimensional quantum gases

  • Yafei  Mao 

    Supervisor:
    Professor Noriyuki Satoh

    Co-supervisor:
    Professor Evan Economo

    Research Unit:
    Marine Genomics Unit

    Thesis:
    Whole-genome sequence analysis of the evolutionary history of the reef-building coral genus Acropora (Scleractinia, Cnidaria)

  • Girish Beedessee

    Supervisor:
    Professor Noriyuki Satoh

    Research Unit:
    Marine Genomics Unit

    Thesis:
    Genomic insights on secondary metabolism in symbiotic dinoflagellates