UCL-Japan Youth Challenge 2022

Until July 2020 for three years, Dr. Hoshino served as an Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations in New York in charge of socio-economic and budgetary affairs. His previous positions have included: Vice-President (Global Engagement) of Osaka University; Minister-Counsellor in charge of political affairs at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the UN; Senior Research Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs; Guest Scholar at Columbia University; Visiting Fellow, Princeton University; and Special Assistant (Political Affairs) at the Embassy of Japan to the United States. He graduated from Sophia University, Japan, completed a Master’s at the University of Tokyo, and received his PhD from Osaka University.

Jim Berry is a leading member of University College London’s School of Management. He is currently serving as the founding Director for the UCL MBA and an Assistant Professor (Lecturer) with the Organisations and Innovation Group. He is an award winning teacher and researcher. He earned his PhD in Organizational Behaviour from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and continues to teach negotiations in their global MBA programs.

Jim is primarily engaged in the areas of creativity, innovation, motivation, negotiations, leading change, and strategic planning. His research is focused on how leaders can maximize the creativity of their employees and stakeholders to innovate and provide strategic direction for their organisations. His research has been published in the Academy of Management Journal (with Adam Grant), Academy of Management Review (with Sarah Harvey), Organizational Research Methods (with Jeff Edwards), Journal of Business Venturing Insights (with Janice Sanchez) and cited in many books and articles. In practice, he has facilitated leadership, change management, innovation, and strategic planning efforts for groups including: Apple, U.S. Dept. of Labor, Goldman Sachs 10KSB, Honeywell, Lufthansa, HSBC, and the Red Cross, among many others. Additionally, he has directed the development of a Strategic Innovation Program for growth businesses funded by the UK government. Jim brings a diverse background to his work, previously: founding a software company, starting a strategic consultancy group, leading technology R&D efforts, coaching Olympic athletes, and writing anti-terrorism textbooks.

From Dr Jim Berry:

Many times leaders seem superhuman as they drive our countries and businesses, making crucial decisions that effect all of our lives. In this talk, I break down the myths of the all-knowing leader and portray true leadership as acting with courage under uncertainty. The world is facing many challenges from climate change to increasing in equality. We need to encourage more of our citizens to take responsible action rather than abdicating choice to just a few ‘leaders’. This talk helps refocus leadership around experimentation – allowing for failure as we act and learn. Leaders are not perfect and we should not hold ourselves to that standard before we take charge of our own futures.

Dr. Rihel uses molecular and behavioral genetics to probe the mysteries of sleep and arousal in zebrafish. His research focus flows naturally from a lifelong interest in the molecular and neuronal underpinnings of innate behaviors. He started his career in behavioral genetics as an undergraduate (1994-1998) in Dr. Jeff Price’s lab at West Virginia University by investigating the fruit fly circadian clock mutant, double-time. After obtaining his PhD at Harvard University with Professor Catherine Dulac (1998-2004), Dr. Rihel then went on to develop methods to study sleep in zebrafish in Prof. Alexander Schier’s lab at Harvard, publishing some of the first papers to demonstrate that fish have sleep-like states governed by similar genes and neurons that regulate sleep in humans. Since 2013, Dr Rihel has run his own research lab at University College London, where he continues to study the intersection of sleep and disease. His research has been funded by the European Research Council, Alzheimer’s Research UK, the BBSRC, and the Wellcome Trust.

Stephen Smith is a Professor of Economics at University College London. He began his career as a UK government economist, and then worked for 12 years with a leading independent think-tank, the Institute for Fiscal Studies. His research covers environmental economics and the economics of tax policy.

Dr Sun completed her undergraduate thesis from Peking University studying neuronal network and visual circuit assembly. Her PhD research at University of Southern California focused on circuit computation and sensory cortical development using both computational and systems approaches. During her postdoc training at UC San Francisco, Dr Sun worked with Drs Roger Nicoll and Michael Stryker to apply molecular techniques, electrophysiology, and 2-photon imaging to study the cellular and circuit mechanisms of neuroplasticity in developing and adult brain.

Dr Sun recently joined UCL Institute of Ophthalmology to start her independent research. The Visual Plasticity Lab studies how neuroplasticity in the visual systems is regulated through interaction in the local environment as well as crosstalk between different brain regions. They apply state-of-art imaging techniques, together with computational, physiological, pharmacological, and molecular manipulation, to identify the underlying biological basis of visual cortical plasticity.

From Dr Jennifer Sun:

We rely heavily on our vision to navigate through our daily life. Our visual system can display changes exhibit long-lasting modification in neuronal activities and synaptic connections in response to sensory experience. In this talk, I will introduce the visual plasticity in human visions and then talk about research studying the neural basis of this process and the potential intervention to boost up plasticity in the adult brain.

Daisuke Kawata is studying the formation history of the Milky Way at Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL), UCL. His main research topic is so-called Galactic Archaeology, revealing the formation history of the Milky Way from the detailed observation of the current picture of the Milky Way. Galactic Archaeology is now having an exciting time, because European Space Agency (ESA)’s Gaia mission (launched in 2013) is providing the unprecedentedly accurately measured position and motion (astrometry) of about one billion stars in the Milky Way. Combining the Gaia data with the other data from the space- and ground-based telescopes in the world, they are studying how the ancient merger with another galaxy about 10 billion years ago impacted the formation of the Galactic disk structures, when and how the bar structure of the Milky Way formed, the physical mechanism creating the beautiful spiral arm structures in the Galactic disk and where the Sun formed in the Milky Wan and travelled to the current location, using the numerical simulations and data science techniques. He is also involved in the future astrometry missions in Japan, JASMINE (Janan AStrometry MIssion for INfrared Exploration) as the Project Scientist and in Europe, GaiaNIR mission concept as a member of the expert science group. He obtained his Doctor of Science from Tohoku University in 2000. He was a postdoctoral researcher at Swinburne University, Australia (2000-2005) and Carnegie Observatories, USA (2005-2008, partly as a JSPS fellow). He is working at UCL since 2008.

From Prof Daisuke Kawata:

I will give an introductory lecture of the structures in the Universe. The lecture will introduce the structure of our own Galaxy, the Milky Way, which harbours the beautiful disk and spiral arms and the super massive black hole at the centre. Then, we will have a journey from the local Universe to the deep Universe, including the early epoch of our Universe now captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.

Professor Paolo Taticchi is Professor (Education) in Strategy and Sustainability & School Deputy Director (MBA, Global Engagement, Executive Education) at UCL School of Management.

Paolo’s research on corporate sustainability and performance measurement is internationally recognised. Paolo’s last book is titled “Corporate Sustainability in Practice” and was published in January 2021. Outside of the academy, Paolo has significant consultancy experience in the fields of strategy, education, and sustainability. He has worked in this capacity for firms of various sizes, and in a range of different industries. Today, he advices (or serves in the advisory board) influential organisations and is one of the scientific advisors of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition in Italy.

He has received numerous awards for the impact of his work. His projects, quotes and opinions have been featured over 300 times in international media outlets. In 2021, Paolo was indicated by Italian’s leading business daily Sole 24 Ore as the most influential Italian under the age of 40.

David Bowler is a computational physicist, using computers to run quantum mechanical calculations of the properties of materials. Working in close collaboration with groups in Japan and France, he has developed an approach that can provide accurate calculations for millions of atoms. David applies these methods to understanding the properties of nanometre scale structures on semiconductor surfaces.

From Prof David Bowler:

I will give a brief introduction to some of the ideas that underlie quantum mechanics and nanotechnology, and explain why both are important. I will then describe how we can use some of the features of quantum mechanics to perform extremely sensitive measurements of atomic structures on surfaces, and to perform calculations of these same surfaces. I will discuss how it is important for experimental and theoretical approaches to work together to understand fully the properties of the nanoscale.

Manzur graduated with a Double First in Economics from Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was elected to Junior, Senior and Research Scholarships.

Manzur completed his doctoral studies in economic theory at UCL under the supervision of Martin Cripps FBA, where he specialised in game theory, bounded rationality and industrial organisation.

Manzur has taught economics at UCL since 2009. He has also taught at the University of Cambridge and the London School of Economics. In a previous life, Manzur spent time training as a pilot with the RAF, worked on the trading floor of Barclays Capital, in commercial real estate at Slaughter and May, taught at Charterhouse and worked for Jeremy Corbyn MP in the House of Commons. He has acted as an expert consultant to the UN in Bahrain, British Dental Association (BDA) and Control Risks. Manzur is the author of ‘Macroeconomics for Dummies’. Part of the world famous ‘for Dummies’ series of books.

Manzur grew up in London, not far from UCL. He has also lived in Jordan, Bahrain and North Carolina. He is fluent in Bangla and is working on his Arabic.

Dr Sunny Lee works as an associate professor of organizational behavior (OB) and the head of diversity at the UCL School of Management. She earned a B.A. in English Literature from the Seoul National University, a M.P.P. from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in OB from the London Business School. Before entering academia, Dr Lee worked as a consultant at Accenture, LG Ad, and Hewlett Packard for about several years.

Since she joined the School in 2014, she has taught negotiation courses to broad audience including masters and MBAs at UCL, Peking University, London Business School and Met Police Officers. As the Athena SWAN lead and the head of diversity at the School, she is committed to making their School a diverse and positive place where talents can thrive, and people feel happy and included.

Kazune Sato is an aspiring theoretical linguist who graduated from UCL in July 2022 with BA (Hons) in Linguistics. Having self-taught 8+ languages, prior to coming to UCL he competed in the IOL (International Linguistics Olympiad) as a contestant, representing Japan. He is currently involved in the administration of United Kingdom Linguistics Olympiad (UKLO) as Marker Coordinator and Test Development, Japan Linguistics Olympiad (JOL) as Board Member and Jury, and Asia-Pacific Linguistics Olympiad (APLO) as member of the International Jury. He is also part of the Undergraduate Linguistics Association of Britain (ULAB) as National Webmaster and Puzzles Section Editor for their quarterly magazine, U-Lingua. His main research interests are syntactic theory and Japanese linguistics.

Yoshiko Matsunaga is a First secretary working for the Embassy of Japan in the UK.

From Ms Yoshiko Matsunaga: 

I will talk through Scholarship program (MEXT) from the UK to Japanese universities.

Hyori Jeon is an International Programme Associate in the London office of JSPS, which is the largest and core research funding organisation in Japan and promotes scientific research collaboration between Japan and other countries.

From Ms Hyori Jeon:

If you want to do research during your university years or are interested in the research experience in Japan, today’s talk will be useful in the near future: an overview of the JSPS and its international fellowship programmes for young researchers will be presented.

Martin White leads on student recruitment strategy and operations for the UCL Centre for Languages & International Education (CLIE). He overseas marketing and communications for UCL’s pre-degree courses for international students, raising the profile of these courses across 5 world regions alongside UCL degree programmes. This includes: conversion activities; building relationships with key educational, governmental and commercial stakeholders; market and competitor research; managing a network of educational agents.

After leaving university Martin lived in Japan for three years, teaching English. His love for travelling and different cultures continues.

From Mr Martin White:

UCL Undergraduate Preparatory Certificates are foundation courses for international students whose high school qualifications do not allow direct admission to an undergraduate degree.

Students from Japanese high schools will need a foundation year if they wish to study their undergraduate degree at UCL.

The session will introduce the course and what we are looking for in suitable applicants.

T Tanaka has been in charge of scholarship program at the Yanai Tadashi Foundation for four years. He would like you to understand our founder’s aspiration, our mission and vision.

From Mr T Tanaka:

We will share our scholarship program for Japanese students who are going to enter University of US or UK.
In addition this, we have these program below with Yanai Scholars.

• Introduction to UK universities
• The Application Process
• Panel Discussion: why we chose the UK
• Q&A

The Yanai Tadashi Foundation supports aspiring and passionate students to acquire advanced knowledge on a global level. At the same time, it fosters community connecting the scholars to each other intellectually, encouraging them to utilize and enhance their talents. We hope that Yanai Tadashi Foundation scholars will lead various fields of society with a sense of mission in the future and take action with us to realize a better society and pass it on to the next generation.

Caroline Skanne is the founder & editor of ‘hedgerow: a journal of small poems’ & has edited ‘Blithe Spirit’ (the journal of the British Haiku Society) since 2019. Born in Stockholm Sweden, she now resides in a village by the river Medway, UK.