FY2014 Annual Report

Science and Technology Group

To achieve its goals, the University needs to be able to respond flexibly to opportunities to extend and complement its research portfolio and to pursue activities in support of the wider development of Okinawa. The members of the Science and Technology Group provide a focus for these activities and contribute to the research capabilities of the University in many ways, providing skilled leadership for technical support services and developing scientific, technical, industrial, educational or cultural collaborations with local institutions. It enables new scientific or technical directions to be supported where activities by a typical research unit are not warranted. Science and Technology Associates work projects that extend and complement the University’s research portfolio and that support the wider development of Okinawa.

Mirona Chirienco

Juanita Choo

Anya Dani

Charlotte Fournier

Garth Ilsley

Reina Komiya

André Leier

Cecilia Lu

Payal Shah

Hitoshi Sugiyama

The FY2014 members of the Science and Technology Group

This is the first Annual Report produced by the Science and Technology Group. This work is described below, and reveals a diverse program of research and cultural development complementary to the rest of the OIST programme.

	STG Associate	Discipline	Brief description of project
1.	Mirona Chirienco	Geology	Past climate and environmental change
2.	Juanita Choo	Environmental Science	Human impact on the Amazon rainforest and Okinawa
3.	Anya Dani	Art Conservation	Preservation of cultural objects in Okinawa museum, especially pottery and old musical instruments
4.	Charlotte Fournier	Biophysics	The molecular dynamics of the epidermal growth factor receptor in cell membranes
5.	Garth Ilsley	Genomics	Regulation of gene expression
6.	Reina Komiya	Biology	Reproductive mechanism including long intergenic non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) and Chromatin regulation between germ cells and somatic cells
7.	André Leier	Systems Biology	Development of mathematical tools and models for biological and physiological processes
8.	Cecilia Lu	Neuroscience	Homeostatic regulation of neural connectivity
9.	Payal Shah	Economics	Analyzing the social and environmental consequences of natural resource management policies and to formulate optimal strategies to address environmental challenges such as climate change
10.	Hitoshi Sugiyama	Medicine	Improving the effectiveness of in vitro fertilization

Please refer to the links on the name for each member's Annual Report FY2014.