Rate My Professor Tomohisa Hasunuma

Tomohisa Hasunuma is Professor at the Graduate School of Science, Technology and Innovation, Kobe University, and Director of the Engineering Biology Research Center at Kobe University. He earned a B.S. in 1998, an M.S. in 2000, and a Ph.D. in 2004 from the Department of Biotechnology, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University. His career includes service as a researcher at the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth from 2004 to 2008, followed by appointments at Kobe University as Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Science and Engineering (2008–2009), Lecturer in the Organization of Advanced Science and Technology (2009–2012), Associate Professor in the Organization of Advanced Science and Technology (2012–2015), and Professor in the Organization of Advanced Science and Technology (2015–2016). He has held his current professorship since 2016 and has directed the Engineering Biology Research Center since 2018. Hasunuma also served as a researcher for the Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology program of the Japan Science and Technology Agency from 2011 to 2014.

His research focuses on metabolic engineering of microorganisms based on metabolomics for bio-based chemical production, development of omics platforms, and photosynthetic production of functional chemicals. He has received multiple Kobe University President’s Awards (2017–2025) and the Biotechnology Paper Award of the Society for Biotechnology, Japan (2025), as well as earlier honors including the Biotechnology Encouragement Prize of the Society for Biotechnology, Japan (2014) and the Fermentation and Metabolism Research Prize of the Japan Bioindustry Association (2013). Hasunuma maintains an active publication record in metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, and related fields, with contributions to journals such as Metabolic Engineering, Nature Biotechnology, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.