Jun'ichi Yokoyama
Director, Kavli IPMU
Jun'ichi Yokoyama has been a central figure in the research community in Japan, leading international research efforts into cosmology of the early Universe, large-scale structure evolution, and gravitational wave physics.
He received his PhD in Physics from The University of Tokyo, and has held positions at the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics in Kyoto University, Osaka University, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University, before becoming Professor at the Research Center for the Early Universe (RESCEU), The University of Tokyo in 2005, and later its Director since 2023. Yokoyama has also been a Visiting Senior Scientist at Kavli IPMU since not long after its establishment.
Yokoyama has also served on several academic societies, including President of the Association of Asia Pacific Physical Sciences, Executive Board member of the Physical Society of Japan, President of the Asia Pacific Organization for Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics, and Chair of the Japanese Association of Theoretical Astronomers and Astrophysicists as well as the Japan Gravitational Wave Community. He also served as Chairperson of KAGRA Scientific Congress Board, the equivalent of a spokesperson of the KAGRA project, for two years until September 2023.