HSRRC Members
Membership | Name | Expertise | Affiliation |
Chair | Tsuyoshi Kondo | Researcher (Psychiatory) | Professor, Graduate School of Medicine, University of the Ryukyus |
Member | Orie Nishimura | Expert in law | Lawyer, Yua Law Office |
Member | Yuichi Maru | Expert in ethics/researcher (Ethics) | Professor, Tottori University Faculty of Regional Sciences |
Member | Kentaro Tamaki | Medical doctor/local society | Director, Okinawa Medical Association |
Member | Tom Froese | Researcher (Cognitive Science) | Assistant Professor, OIST Graduate Univeristy |
Member | Masato Tsutsui | Researcher (Pharmacology) | Professor, Graduate School of Medicine, University of the Ryukyus |
Member | Katsuya Kinjo | Representative of the pubic/local culture/society | Science and Technology Promotion Division, Okinaw Prefecture |
Member | Gail Tripp | Researcher (Psychology) | Professor, OIST Graduate School |
Member | Aya Yasunaga | Representative of the public/local society | Board of Education, Onna Village |
Member | Hiroki Ishikawa | Researcher (Immunology) | Associate Professor, OIST Graduate University |
Observer Member | Thomas Burns | Expert in ethics/researcher (Neuroscience) | OIST PhD Student |
Observer Member: Thomas Burns

Thomas was appointed as observer member in November 2020. With Master’s degree in Bioethics, Mr. Burns will provide opinions to the Committee as an expert in ethics as stipulated in Article 2-1 of the OIST Rules for Human Subjects Research Review Committee. As an observer member Mr. Burns will have the right to speak during HSRRC meetings, but will not have any voting rights. In practice this means that he may attend meetings, offer opinions and ask questions, but he will not vote in decisions regarding the approval or otherwise of ethics applications. The term of the position shall be two years in accordance with Article 2-6 of the Rules, and he may be reappointed.
As an observer member Mr. Burns will participate in ethics review for human subjects’ research from now on. If an applicant does not wish the observer member to be involved in the review, he or she can ask the observer member to be excused from the review by contacting the Secretariat in advance. As with all HSRRC members Mr. Burns will keep confidential information he is privy to in his role as a committee member.