After graduating from Koyaguchi Elementary School in Wakayama Prefecture, Ryohei Kanzaki studied at Chiben Gakuen Junior and Senior High School and then enrolled at the University of Tsukuba. After earning his doctorate at the Graduate School of Biosciences at the University of Tsukuba, he studied abroad as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Arizona. He subsequently became an adjunct professor at the University of Arizona, a professor of life sciences at the University of Tsukuba, and a professor at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Information Science and Technology. In 2006, he became a professor at the University of Tokyo Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology. Then in 2016, he became the center’s director. He conducts research into reproducing the exceptional capabilities (intelligence) that living organisms have obtained through evolution by means of leading-edge technology and leveraging them to positive ends. He conducts unique brain research; one such project reproduced an insect brain using the K supercomputer to create a cyborg insect that moved in response to an insect’s brain. He’s also actively involved in hosting experimental science classes for children and giving talks. He received an honorary degree from the University of Milano-Bicocca. He’s a visiting professor at Tokyo University of Science. He’s a member of the Engineering Academy of Japan, and he’s served in positions such as chairman of the Japanese Society for Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry. In 2015, he received the Hashimoto City Culture Award.
http://www.brain.imi.i.u-tokyo.ac.jp/