Rate My Professor Nobutaka Hirokawa

Professor Nobutaka Hirokawa is Project Professor at the Graduate School of Medicine, Juntendo University. He received his M.D. from the University of Tokyo Medical School in 1971 and his Ph.D. from the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Tokyo Faculty of Medicine in 1978. He completed postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco, and Washington University School of Medicine.

His academic appointments include Assistant Professor at the University of Tokyo Medical School, positions at Washington University, Professor and Chairman of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Tokyo from 1983 to 2009, Dean of the Graduate School of Medicine from 2003 to 2007, and Project Professor roles at the University of Tokyo until 2023 before joining Juntendo University. Hirokawa has served as President of the Human Frontier Science Program and the International Federation for Cell Biology. He has held editorial roles with journals including Cell, Science, Neuron, the Journal of Cell Biology, and others. His honors include the Asahi Prize, the Japan Academy Prize, the Person of Cultural Merit award, the Order of Culture, and election as an Associate Member of EMBO. Hirokawa is recognized for his research on the kinesin superfamily of motor proteins and mechanisms of intracellular transport. He has authored or co-authored numerous publications, including key papers in Cell and Science on kinesin functions and left-right asymmetry determination.