Japan SciCom Forum 2024

Tomoko Otake is a reporter at The Japan Times. After working as a reporter and editor at the English-language paper for over 20 years, she took a break from journalism in 2018, joining the University of Tokyo’s international communications team. In 2022, she returned to The Japan Times as a senior writer and has been covering a range of health, environment and other science stories.

With a PhD in Molecular Biology and working experiences across countries/cultures, Akira Ohkubo’s role as a Science Communicator at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, has allowed him to take the initiative in building relations with diverse minority communities, including the deaf, the blind and the neurodiverse, and creating inclusive museum contents by collaborating with them, scientists, and more. He is also dedicated to reaching out to international peers and developing opportunities for collaborative work with them. All this fits his professional mission—making a museum (or any public space) open and meaningful to everyone.

Andrew Robertson arrived in Japan from the UK in the late 20th century, having gained his Bachelor's degree from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, and clutching a shiny new chemistry PhD from the University of Birmingham. After completing two years of post-doctoral research, he decided to remain in Japan for one more year, got trapped, and never made it back. He is now an Associate Professor teaching chemistry and science communication in the Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University.

Following a somewhat rash grant proposal, he began a chemistry-education YouTube channel in 2021 called Three Twentysix. Supported by a small team of part-time undergraduates, his channel currently has over 80,000 subscribers and over 9 million views. In March 2024, the Japan Union for Chemistry, Science and Technology awarded Three Twentysix the 2023 Prize for Chemistry Communication. His hobbies include fiction writing, aikido, and murdering the guitar.

Kaoru is Director of Communications at the Japan office of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) or Doctors Without Borders, an international, independent, humanitarian organization which provides medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from healthcare. Before joining MSF in May 2019, Kaoru worked for the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) for 12 years, where she managed public and media relations activities of the graduate university, nurtured 25 science communication fellows from around the world, and co-organized the Japan SciCom Forum 2019 in her role as media section leader. Kaoru’s career began in television production after which she worked for NHK and CNN during her graduate studies in the USA, and then for the US Embassy in Tokyo. She has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia, USA.

Thilina is an Assistant Professor and Director of Communications at the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) in Tokyo. His research interests are public engagement evaluation, science & society strategies at research institutions, astrobiology communication, and decolonising science. He heads the ELSI PR Office, teaches science communication for graduate students, supervises science communication internships, and coordinates science and society projects.

Brian Lin is Director of Editorial Content Strategy at EurekAlert!, a science news-release distribution platform operated by the non-profit American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He has more than two decades of experience as a science communicator, having first interned at a national daily technology TV show in Canada before serving as a press officer at the University of British Columbia, where he helped scientists communicate their research and delivered media training to faculty and students. Since joining AAAS in 2014, he has more than tripled web traffic at EurekAlert! and led the development of a new platform that launched in 2021. His current focus is in expanding access to EurekAlert! in low- and middle-income countries and fostering diversity, equity and inclusion in and through science communication.

Heather Young is purpose-driven communications leaders with almost 20 years of experience in the field. Her expertise spans public relations, media relations, marketing, public affairs, corporate social responsibility, and events.

At OIST, the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, she serves as a vice president where she and her teams work to advance the visibility of the institute’s research and education.

Prior to OIST, Heather held leadership positions at an innovation-focused NGO, a health and safety agency, and the Special Olympics.

Daisuke Furuta is a journalist and Editor-in-Chief of the Japan Fact-check Center (JFC). Daisuke started his career as a news reporter for The Asahi Shimbun, Japan’s national newspaper. In 2015, he joined BuzzFeed as the founder and editor-in-chief of the Japan edition.

He left BuzzFeed in 2019 and worked as a teaching fellow at Google News Lab. In two years, he trained more than 20,000 journalists and students. He was named editor-in-chief of JFC in September 2022 and launched it the next month. Daisuke is a board member of the Digital Journalist Education Institute(D-JEDI). He is an alumnus of the City University of New York Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism Executive Program in News Innovation and Leadership.

Brian Lin is Director of Editorial Content Strategy at EurekAlert!, a science news-release distribution platform operated by the non-profit American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He has more than two decades of experience as a science communicator, having first interned at a national daily technology TV show in Canada before serving as a press officer at the University of British Columbia, where he helped scientists communicate their research and delivered media training to faculty and students. Since joining AAAS in 2014, he has more than tripled web traffic at EurekAlert! and led the development of a new platform that launched in 2021. His current focus is in expanding access to EurekAlert! in low- and middle-income countries and fostering diversity, equity and inclusion in and through science communication.

As a science student, I have realized how important it is to share our work in a way everyone can understand. When I worked at the University Cultural Center in Iran, I enjoyed writing and organizing events and we also dealt with cases of misinformation. After moving to Japan and starting my graduate studies, I tried an internship in science communication and have been volunteering for a few organizations.

In my opinion, we as students must take the lead in talking about our own research, learning to explain complex ideas simply will not only help us understand our own work better but also lead to new opportunities. I would like to share some examples of student-led initiatives and social media engagement between different cultures and suggest some ideas we can adopt.

Dr. Aurovrata Venet trained as an Astrophysicist specialising in data analytics. He started his career at the European Space Agency contributing to various planetary mission data pipelines and eventually returned to live in India where he was raised. He is a passionate science educator, especially for children, and has contributed to various science communication programs for school.

While based in south India, he was inspired to leverage his experience for the benefit of marginalised communities, raising funds and conducting educational programs for slum children. He is currently based in Fukuoka for a year.

Laurence Lingat is a faculty member under the Information Management and Publication Unit – Office of Student Affairs (OSA), and affiliate faculty from the Department of English and Humanities, College of Arts and Social Sciences, Central Luzon State University (CLSU), Philippines. He finished his bachelor of science degree in Development Communication at the same university.

Currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of OSA Spectrum, the official newsletter of his unit, and Technical Adviser of CLSU Collegian, the official student publication of the said institution. His research interests are on science communication, journalism, English language studies, and community communication.

Adam is a researcher turned science communicator. After obtaining his PhD in neuroscience from Northwestern University and doing a couple post-docs in Japan, he pivoted to science communication as a way to help bridge the gap between what scientists do and what the public knows. Although he has been working as a science communicator at RIKEN for the past 10 years, he remains a sucker for data analysis, as you will soon discover.

Zichao Liang is a master's student at the Department of Kansei Science, the Graduate School of Integrated Frontier Sciences, Kyushu University. Originally from Beijing and currently residing in Japan, Zichao has gained a deep understanding of the challenges that foreign residents face in relation to disaster preparedness and response.

Based on this awareness, he is using an action research approach to develop disaster education tools specifically designed for foreign residents. Zichao has been particularly involved in planning and implementing activities focused on multicultural coexistence and disaster prevention in cooperation with the local community in the Yoshizuka area, Hakata Ward, Fukuoka City.

Noriko Noguchi is a researcher of biochemistry and cell biology at Doshisha University, Japan (PhD, Tsukuba University 1987). Her research interests are mechanism of development of neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, and atherosclerosis induced by oxidative stress. The inhibition of these diseases by antioxidants is also her major subject. In addition to her research, she has spent working for establishment of the education system of science communication for students.

Jan Lauwereyns (1969) is a scientist and writer. His research centers on the cognitive and neural mechanisms of decision-making, with applications toward bioethics. He conducted research at top institutions in Belgium, the U.S., and New Zealand, before shifting to Kyushu University in Japan in 2010. Lauwereyns has published widely, including academic papers in Nature and Neuron, and the monographs "The Anatomy of Bias" and "Brain and the Gaze" with The MIT Press. In 2022, he was appointed Senior Vice President for International Affairs and Public Relations at Kyushu University.

In addition to his academic career, Lauwereyns is an established writer in his native language Dutch, having published more than twenty volumes of prose or poetry, including three novels. His awards include the VSB Poetry Prize and the Hugues C. Pernath Prize.

Ayumi is Director of the National BioResource Project Public Relations Office, National Institute of Genetics. She co-founded Japan Scicom Forum in 2018 to build a platform that brings together science communicators, press officers and researchers engaging in English-language science communication in Japan.

She has over 15 year of experience in communicating research from Japanese academic institutions such as the University of Tokyo and the Japan Science and Technology Agency. Her primary research areas are institution-level science/research communication in Japan and Asia.

She is also interested in the intersection of science and culture, especially how cultural contexts or the language used confine the science or research being communicated.

Kiki Bowman oversees the daily operations of the Tokyo-based United Nations University (UNU) Office of Communications. She coordinates communications activities across the global UNU system and for local Japan-based audiences. Kiki has nearly 15 years of experience building stakeholder-focused teams within branding, advertising, digital, and communications organisations in New York and Tokyo.

Rina first joined Osaka City University in 2014 as a Public Relations (PR) staff member, where the concept of international research PR did not yet exist. Fortunately, at Japan Association of Communication for Science and Technology (JACST) meetings in 2015, she met some PR professionals who were motivated and helped her to establish an international PR team.

Due to the university merger, her workplace changed its name to Osaka Metropolitan University (OMU) in 2022. Prior to her current position, she worked in the PR department of one of Japan's leading consumer electronics companies. She has also worked in primary/secondary education and translation/localization in the United States for about 10 years.