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Yasuhisa Mizutani

Personal Profile

Yasuhisa Mizutani

Education

  • Ph. D., Department of Functional Molecular Science, School of Mathematical and Physical Science, The Graduate School of Advanced Studies, 1992.
  • M. Eng., Department of Molecular Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, 1989.
  • B. Eng., Department of Industrial Chemistry, Fuculty of Engineering, Kyoto University, 1987.

Professional Experiences

  • April 2006-present;
    Full Professor: Graduate School of Science, Osaka University
  • June 2001-March 2006;
    Associate Professor: Molecular Photoscience Research Center, Kobe University
  • January 1994-May 2001;
    Research Associate: Institute for Molecular Science
  • April 1992-December 1993;
    Postdoctoral Research Fellow: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

Honors and Awards

  • Inoue Research Award for Young Scientists, February 1995
  • Morino Foundation for Molecular Science, August 2001
  • Pittsburgh Conference Lectures, April 2008
  • 3e Cycle Lectures (Conférence universitaire de Suisse occidentale), October 2009
  • The Chemical Society of Japan Award for Creative Work, March 2013
  • 2nd Presidential Awards for Achievement in Osaka University, August, 2013

Phone

+81-6-6850-5776

FAX

+81-6-6850-5776

E-mail

mztn@chem.sci.osaka-u.ac.jp

Professional Societies and Activities

  • The Chemical Society of Japan
  • Japan Society for Molecular Science
  • The Biophysical Society of Japan
  • The Spectroscopical Society of Japan
  • Protein Science Society of Japan

Prof. Mizutani earned his B. Eng. and M. Eng. degrees in 1987 and 1989, respectively, from Kyoto University, under the supervision of Prof. Koichiro Nakanishi. He received his Ph. D. degree from the Graduate University for Advanced Studies in 1992 under the supervision of Prof. Teizo Kitagawa. After that, he did postdoctoral works at Institute for Molecular Science and at the University of Pennsylvania, where he worked with Prof. Robin M. Hochstrasser. In 1994, he joined the faculty at Institute for Molecular Science as a research associate of the research group of Prof. Teizo Kitagawa. He has been appointed as an associate professor of Kobe University in 2001 and a full professor of Osaka University in 2006. He received the 11th Inoue Research Award for Young Scientists of Inoue Foundation for Science in 1995, the 17th Morino Science Award from Morino Foundation for Molecular Science in 2001 and The Chemical Society of Japan Award for Creative Work in 2013.

His numerous contributions to biophysical chemistry and time-resolved spectroscopy are internationally recognized. He has published about sixty papers in refereed journals. His papers published in Science (1997) and in PNAS (1995) have been cited more than a hundred times. His group is engaged in experiments to study a broad range of fundamental problems in physical and biophysical chemistry. A common theme in these experiments is the implementation of state-of-the-art laser techniques to interrogate and manipulate complex molecular systems. The results of these efforts are contributing to a deeper understanding of the structural nature of proteins’ motions and relating the dynamics to biological function, for instance, understanding of the details of how proteins change structure responding to external stimuli to achieve their biological functions and how energy dissipation is coupled to protein structure and dynamics. His recent work has been devoted to the developments and applications of time-resolved resonance Raman spectroscopy to observe of functionally-important protein dynamics, which span an enormous range of time scales ranging from femtoseconds (10-15 sec) to seconds.