The Graduation Ceremony to award degrees to those who graduated in the period May 2025 to January 2026. The ceremony will take place at the OIST Auditorium on Friday, February 27, 2026.

Moderated by Lauren Ha, Associate Vice President for Technology Development and Innovation, the conversation will explore Kris’s career, current initiatives, and his perspective on the global tech industry. After a 20‑minute interview, the floor will open for audience questions. The event will be followed by a special OIST Teatime in Center Court.

TSVP Talk Language: English (no interpretation). Target audience: General audience / everyone at OIST and beyond. Freely accessible to all OIST members and guests without registration (also via Zoom).

Speaker: Cindy Poo, a senior scientist with the Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics and an Affiliate Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Washington

This talk will explore some aspects of non-smooth Lorentzian geometry, the mathematical framework underlying Einstein’s general relativity, which is currently being developed. Just as metric length spaces provide a synthetic generalisation of smooth Riemannian manifolds, the time-separation function plays the role of a “distance” in Lorentzian geometry. The need for a non-smooth Lorentzian framework appeared early on, most famously with Penrose’s singularity theorems. After introducing the basic concepts and some initial results in this synthetic setting, we will turn to causal set theory, a radical approach to quantum gravity in which spacetime is modelled as a discrete causal graph. I will formulate a new notion of curvature, inspired by Ollivier-Ricci curvature on metric graphs, using optimal transport between causal diamonds. We will see that it does recover Ricci curvature on smooth Lorentzian manifolds, and numerical examples will be presented.

TSVP Talk Language: English (no interpretation). Target audience: General audience / everyone at OIST and beyond. Freely accessible to all OIST members and guests without registration (also via Zoom).

Title: Rocks instead of clocks: Bayesian modelling of the fossil record enlightens the diversification and extinction of Hemiptera in deep time

Abstract: Untangling the patterns and drivers behind the diversification and extinction of highly diversified lineages remains a challenge in evolutionary biology. While insect diversification has been widely studied through the “ Big Four” insect orders (Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, and Diptera), the fifth most diverse order, Hemiptera, has often been overlooked. Hemiptera exhibit a rich fossil record and are highly diverse in present-day ecosystems, with many lineages closely associated with their host plants, making them a crucial group for studying how past ecological shifts—such as mass extinctions and floral turnovers—have influenced insect diversification. This study leverages birth-death models in a Bayesian framework and the fossil record of Hemiptera to estimate their past diversity dynamics. Our results reveal that global changes in flora over time significantly shaped the evolutionary trajectories of Hemiptera. Two major faunal turnovers particularly influenced Hemiptera diversification: (i) the aftermath of the Permo-Triassic mass extinction and (ii) the Angiosperm Terrestrial Revolution. Our analyses suggest that diversification of Hemiptera clades was driven by floristic shifts combined with competitive pressures from overlapping ecological niches. Leveraging the extensive fossil record of Hemiptera allowed us to refine our understanding of diversification patterns across major hemipteran lineages. We also the recently developed Bayesian Brownian Bridge model, which estimates the timing of lineage origin and extinction through fossil-based Bayesian modelling, to provide a temporal framework for the rise and fall of 310 major hemipteran lineages.

旅費相談会を開催いたします。

February 24th (Tue) @A151 Center Bldg. 15:00-16:00

Prof. Mircea Dincă , Department of Chemistry, Princeton University

TSVP Talk Language: English (no interpretation). Target audience: General audience / everyone at OIST and beyond. Freely accessible to all OIST members and guests without registration (also via Zoom).

Speaker: Dr Lewis Picard, Caltech, USA

Title: Entanglement-assisted readout and cooling of neutral atom qubits in an optical tweezer array

多様な人や組織の協働を支える考え方とプロセスについて、実践的に学ぶワークショップです。

講師 : 広石拓司, エンパブリック株式会社 代表取締役　

言語： 日本語（英語の同時通訳有り）

参加登録

Faculty Affairs Office (FAO) is pleased to announce the first Buribushi Mini-Symposium , to be held on Thursday, February 19, 2026 . All OIST faculty, researchers, students, and staff are warmly invited to attend. Come and join us for a fun research talk !

Experience MAXHUB’s latest interactive meeting solutions.

Showcase includes the All-in-One Meeting Board and Microsoft Teams Room devices.

Live demos highlight how these tools enhance communication and meeting efficiency.

MAXHUB の最新インタラクティブ会議ソリューションを体験できる展示イベントです。

All-in-One Meeting Board や Microsoft Teams Room対応デバイス紹介、会議の効率化・可視化を支援する最新テクノロジーを会場でデモします。

TSVP Talk Language: English (no interpretation). Target audience: General audience / everyone at OIST and beyond. Freely accessible to all OIST members and guests without registration (also via Zoom).

QG Seminar (Zoom) Speaker: Nicolas Cresto (Perimeter) Title: sw1+infinity asymptotic symmetries: Carrollian & Celestial lessons

Speaker: Dr Scott Parkins, Associate Professor, The University of Auckland, NZ

Title: Nonclassical light – getting more of it out of a single atom

Japan’s next wave of global innovation is emerging from the south. This roundtable session, co-hosted by OIST Innovation and Kyushu University Kyusokai , explores the strategic potential of the Okinawa–Kyushu axis as a powerhouse for national-level Deep Tech.

Join us to discuss how we can leverage our unique geographic and academic strengths to create a sustainable supply base for world-changing technologies. We will move beyond theory into the practical realities of venture capital and domain-specific scaling.

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StrucShare meeting: Demo and hands-on experience by Prof Matthias Wolf

Target audience : Students and researchers in the field

Language : English

Abstract : Supersingular elliptic curves and supersingular Abelian varieties are important mathematical background of modern cryptography.

Join Zoom link

Target audience: Interns, Students, PostDocs, and those who are interested in the same research field. Language: English

Title: Neutral-Atom Based Quantum Computing with 171Yb Nuclear-Spin Qubits

Speaker: Dr Sebastian Pucher, Quantum Engineer at Atom Computing, Boulder, Colorado, USA

The aim of the GWB (Global Women’s Breakfast) series is to celebrate the accomplishments of Women in Science and to inspire younger generations to pursue careers in science. Please register here by Friday, February 6th.

QG Seminar (Zoom) Speaker: Hassaan Saleem, (SUNY Albany) Title: Non-supersymmetric strings on AdS3

Title : "Introduction to Isogeny-based Cryptography"

Abstract : Isogeny-based cryptography is a fast-moving field, and recent developments have introduced several new techniques, making the barrier of entry particularly high for young researchers wishing to work in the field. To aid new researchers in the field is the aim of this "summer" school, which introduces all of the many essential tools that are used today. Among the topics to be covered are the correspondences between ideals and isogenies that give rise to both the Deuring correspondence, which is an essential part of protocols such as SQIsign, and the class group action on CM curves and oriented supersingular curves, which gives other cryptographic primitives such as CSIDH and SCALLOP. Further, higher dimensional abelian varieties and isogenies between these have recently become an integral part of isogeny-based cryptography, providing huge improvements to many existing protocols, as well as creating new protocols.

OIST startup EF Polymer invites everyone to join their annual carrot harvesting event!

Date: Saturday, February 7, 2026 Time: 10:00–12:00 Meeting: 9:50 at the Tancha-mae-no-hama Monument

TSVP Talk Language: English (no interpretation). Target audience: General audience / everyone at OIST and beyond. Freely accessible to all OIST members and guests without registration (also via Zoom).

Abstract: I will describe the resolution of two conjectures related to Dirichlet forms. In both cases a conceptually simple solution arises by stepping away from the p=2 regime. This leads to a new definition of a p-Dirichlet space, which unifies three quite different areas: Dirichlet form theory, Analysis on fractals and Analysis on metric spaces. The talk includes joint work with Mathav Murugan

Abstract: Classical Sobolev trace theory tells us when a boundary map can be extended as a Sobolev function inside a given domain in R^n. For the purposes of minimization problems in Nonlinear Elasticity, it is natural to rephrase this question in the context of extending a given embedding of the boundary as a homeomorphic Sobolev map. In this talk, I will explain what is known about this problem, ending with a full trace theory for Sobolev homeomorphisms in 2D.

Dr. Giovanni Consoli, Postdoctoral Fellow from Imperial College London

Evident FV5000 seminar and demonstration

Date: Monday, February 2, 2026 - 11:00 to 12:00 @L5D23, Lab5

Title: "Looking at neurodevelopmental disorders through the lens of evolution: a role for the autolysosomal pathway"

Speaker: Prof. Nael Nadif Kasri, Radboud University

OIST COI-NEXT Annual Symposium 2026 Sustaining Innovation Beyond the Lab Date: March 9th, 2026, at 9:30-17:00 Venue: Sydney Brenner Lecture Theater (B250) Target audience: General audience/ open to everyone at OIST and beyond. Registration Deadline: February 26, 2026 Please register by the deadline to secure your spot. *The deadline has been extended.

TSVP Talk Language: English (no interpretation). Target audience: General audience / everyone at OIST and beyond. Freely accessible to all OIST members and guests without registration (also via Zoom).

QG Seminar Speaker: Veronica Collazuol (IFT Madrid) Title: The Boundary of Symmetric Moduli Spaces and the Distance Conjecture

Onna Elementary’s mandatory orientation is on February 5 ^th . To support non-Japanese speaking OIST parents, the Educational Support Services (ESS) Team would like to hold a pre-orientation event so that the February 5 ^th orientation will be even more beneficial.

During this event, we will provide an overview of the annual school schedule and key events, explain what to prepare and how, outline what to expect in classes, and share general requirements of the Japanese school system.

Although this event is mainly directed at parents of incoming Onna Elementary School 1 ^st grade students, parents of all children are welcome to attend .

Event details:

Title: Onna Elementary School incoming 1 ^st grader pre-orientation

Date: Thursday, January 29th

Time: 12:05PM – 12:55PM

Location: Center Building C210

We look forward to seeing you there.

A series of short (5-20 minute) talks by Thematic Program " Isogeny-Based Cryptography" participants

Title: Harnack’s inequality for nonlocal parabolic equations

Speaker: Prof. Naian Liao (University of Salzburg)

Title: Phragmén-Lindelöf-type results for functions in homogeneous De Giorgi classes

Speaker: Prof. Ugo Gianazza (University of Pavia)

本イベントは日英同時通訳付きのハイブリッド開催となります。

地域の専門家が、農家が直面している課題について短く要点を絞ったインサイトを共有し、その後、起業家による解決策がどのように課題解決につながるかをテーマにパネルディスカッションを行います。さらに、アーリーステージのスタートアップが技術やアイデアをピッチします。

イベントの最後には交流の時間を設け、つながりを深め、新たな協働や沖縄農業の未来につながるパートナーシップ創出の機会を提供します。

Talk by Thomas Astner, Austrian Academy of Sciences (Austria).

旅費相談会を開催いたします。

January 27th (Tue) @A151 Center Bldg. 15:00-16:00

OIST-Keio Showcase Talk Series Vol. 9 – Proteins in Focus: Cryo-EM and Structural Frontiers

The ninth edition of the OIST-Keio Showcase Talk Series brings together experts from Keio University, The University of Osaka’s Institute for Protein Research, and OIST to explore cutting-edge advances in protein science and cryo-electron microscopy. Talks will cover drug design, photosynthetic complexes, molecular motors, enzyme evolution, and viral architectures. This symposium highlights how cryo-EM is transforming our understanding of molecular mechanisms and driving innovation in medicine, biotechnology, and environmental science - with the aim of connecting researchers across institutions to enable interdisciplinary innovation.

This symposium will be followed by the 2026 Cryo-Electron Microscopy Course from January 28 to 30, which is aimed at beginners (admission is free). There experienced researchers will provide an overview of the current state-of-the-art and share their experiences in demonstrations and hands-on practice.

Title: A single emitter emitting resonance fluorescence into a coherent beam

Speaker: Mr Tomas Lamich, ICFO, Spain

Language: English

Guest Seminar by Bourguignon Unit. Guest: Dr. Chisaki Kitajima, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Design, Kyushu University

Title: Design of Deployable Structures Based on Geometry and Biomimetics

Abstract This research investigates deployable structures that can be compactly folded for transportation and storage and expanded to form spatial configurations. To address challenges such as material interference due to thickness, fabrication complexity, and construction safety, three fundamental operations—folding, cutting, and weaving—are identified and systematically applied as design strategies. Drawing on biomimetic principles inspired by insect hindwings and fungal net-like structures, the study develops geometry-based design models for each operation. By integrating geometry, biomimetics, and deployable design, this research demonstrates new possibilities for architectural deployable structures.

進化ゲノミクスユニット：ゲストセミナー ゲスト： 北島千朔氏, 九州大学大学院芸術工学研究院人間生活デザイン部門助教

発表タイトル： 幾何学および生物模倣に基づく展開構造物の設計

要旨： 本研究は、運搬・収納時に小さく折りたたみ、展開によって空間を構成する展開構造物を対象とする。部材厚みによる干渉や施工の複雑性といった課題に対し、「折る」「切る」「編む」という三つの形態操作を整理し、それぞれに対応した設計手法を提案した。さらに、ハサミムシ後翅やキヌガサタケ菌網などの生物構造を模倣し、幾何学的条件に基づく設計モデルを構築した。これにより、展開構造物の新たな設計可能性を示す。

[Speaker] Prof. Jeff Morris, Professor, CUNY City College of New York, Director, Levich Institute and Department of Chemical Engineering

Bruker seminar for Multiphoton imaging

Jan. 23rd (Fri) 13:00-14:00

Open to OIST community

Grad School workshop for Students, Faculty and Interested Staff on the responsible and ethical use of Generative AI tools. Use cases, guidelines, and exchange of views on best practice and future trends.