Rate My Professor Kataaki Okubo

Kataaki Okubo serves as Professor in the Department of Aquatic Bioscience at the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, where he leads the Laboratory of Aquatic Animal Physiology. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo and has held research positions at the National Institute for Basic Biology prior to his appointments at the University of Tokyo, including roles beginning in 2008 and elevation to full professor in 2022. His academic work centers on neuroendocrinology, with extensive investigation into sex differences, reproductive and aggressive behaviors, sexual plasticity, and the roles of sex steroid hormones in the brain of teleost fish, using medaka as a primary model system. Okubo has received multiple honors, including the Grace Pickford Medal from the International Federation of Comparative Endocrinological Societies in 2017, the Japan Comparative Endocrinology Society Encouragement Award in 2017, the Japan Agricultural Science Progress Award in 2013, and the Japanese Society of Fisheries Science Encouragement Award in 2013. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, with recent contributions including studies on androgen signaling pathways determining male medaka mating versus fighting decisions (2024), identification of FSH-RH as a gonadotropin-releasing hormone (2024), evolutionary differentiation of androgen receptors in teleosts (2023), and estrogen receptor functions in sex-typical mating behavior (2021). His research has advanced understanding of hormone-mediated brain mechanisms underlying sexual characteristics and behaviors in fish, with implications for comparative endocrinology and aquaculture.