PCST 2025 Tokyo - Theme 2 (Science and Society)

Euan McKay is Designated Associate Professor at Nagoya University where he is vice head of international strategy and vice head of international communications. He also runs the JSF Socials meetings with other JSF members. Before Nagoya, he worked on international and research communications at Kobe University and the University of Tokyo. His current research focus is on the challenges faced by sexual minority students at Japanese universities and women’s participation in STEM fields.

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.

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.