Coordinators

Toru Asahi

Waseda University Professor, Faculty of Science and Engineering

• Toru Asahi graduated from the Department of Applied Physics, School of Science and Engineering, Waseda University in 1986, obtaining his Ph.D. (Doctor of Science) in 1992, and MBA in 2007, the same year in which he was appointed as Super Technology Officer (STO). He is the Director of the Global Consolidated Research Institute for Science Wisdom at Waseda University and the Vice-Chairperson of the Research Organization for Nano & Life Innovation, where he works to promote interdisciplinary research and develop innovation-oriented human resources.
• Since September 2020 he has been serving as the Deputy Project Manager of the Insect-Based Suitable Food Production Systems toward Global Food Security and Human Space Exploration Project of the Moonshot Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research and Development Program organized by the Cabinet Office of Japan. In October 2020 he became project manager of the Yamauchi Materials Space-Tectonics Project under the Japan Science and Technology Agency’s (JST) Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology (ERATO) research funding program .
• Since October 2021, he has been a core member of the Greater Tokyo Innovation Ecosystem (GTIE), a startup ecosystem formation support project under JST’s START Program for University-Based New Industry Creation (START) . He is also the chairperson of the Life Innovation Expert Committee of the Waseda Open Innovation Ecosystem for Pioneering Research Program (W-SPRING). His areas of research cover chiral science, biophysical sciences, crystal optics, functional thin films, broken symmetry, and cyclical food production systems.