Rate My Professor Hiroko Miyahara

Hiroko Miyahara is an Associate Professor at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), where she leads the Solar-Terrestrial Environment and Climate Unit. She joined OIST in 2025. Prior to this appointment, she held positions at Musashino Art University, serving as Professor in Humanities and Sciences/Museum Careers from 2021 to 2024, Associate Professor in the same division from 2015 to 2021, and Lecturer from 2013 to 2015. From 2008 to 2013, she was Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, The University of Tokyo. Miyahara earned her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from Nagoya University.

Her research examines long-term variations in solar activity on centennial and longer timescales and the underlying mechanisms, primarily through analysis of cosmic-ray-induced isotopes preserved in tree rings, ice cores, and sediments. She has a particular focus on Grand Solar Minima and their potential connections to climate phenomena such as the Little Ice Age. Miyahara also investigates the Earth system’s response to solar forcing using proxy-based, satellite-based, and literature-based climate and meteorological records. She teaches the course Paleoclimatology: Probing Past Climate through Environmental Proxies. Miyahara has received several awards, including the Saruhashi Prize in 2023, the Fumiko Yonezawa Memorial Prize in 2020, the Kodansha Science Publishing Award in 2015, the Young Scientists’ Award by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in 2012, and the Young Scientist Award of the Geochemistry Research Association in 2008.