Special Guests

2018 SciFI Special Guests

NASA

Garvey McIntosh
NASA Asia Representative
U.S. Embassy Tokyo

Garvey McIntosh is the NASA Asia Representative based at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. In this
capacity he is responsible for coordination of NASA programs and interests in Japan and other
countries in the Asia Pacific Region.
Since joining NASA in the Office of International and Interagency Relations (OIIR) almost 15
years ago, Garvey has accumulated a broad range of experience. While in OIIR, he has
supported international cooperation on the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station,
high-energy physics and astronomy, and to the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate,
which included the signing of NASA’s first new agreement with China in over 20 years.

Garvey served as the OIIR Europe Team lead and lead for India, France, and the U.K. He also
gained valuable experience during a year-long detail assignment during which he served as the
Executive Officer to the former NASA Deputy Administrator.
Before joining NASA, Garvey studied economic policy and language in Vietnam as a Boren
Fellow, and spent 4 years in Nagasaki, Japan, where he taught English. He received his
graduate degree from the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California and his
undergraduate degree from Northeastern University in Boston. He has two children Ayana (7)
and Graeson (5).

JAXA

Dr. Asuka Shima
Dr. Asuka Shima is a researcher at JAXA. She studied at Osaka University, where she received her Ph.D. degree in chemistry in March 2009. She has been working for JAXA since April 2009. Her current research interests focus on regenerating oxygen from carbon dioxide for advanced manned space missions.

RIKEN

Dr. Sara Turriziani
Sara Turriziani started her scientific career in 2004, when she joined ASDC, the Science Data Center of the Italian Space Agency. Her research mainly focuses on supermassive black holes using both ground-based observatories and space telescopes, aiming to investigate deeper the peculiar nature of these sources within the evolving Universe. She got her PhD in Astronomy in 2010, and in late 2012 she moved from ASDC to join the WiZard collaboration at University of Rome Tor Vergata, a world-leader team in high energy astrophysics and astroparticle physics research.
During the years she received ﬁnancial support for short-term visits at world-renowned institutions such as the High Energy Astrophysics Division at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the Sterrenkundig Instituut Anton Pannekoek (API) Universiteit van Amsterdam, and the University of Hertfordshire.
Since September 2016, she is a visiting researcher at the Computational Astrophysics Laboratory, RIKEN, Wako-shi, Japan, funded by the JSPS fellowship for Overseas Researchers.
She is a Full Member of the American Astronomical Society, in particular member of the High Energy Astrophysics Division, and she is also member of the Physical Society of Japan.
She is member of several international collaboration working on defining and exploiting existent and future facilities, such as the JEM-EUSO collaboration, the LOFT Consortium, the XIPE Consortium, the Lynx/XRS Working Groups, the LOFAR Transients Key Project Jets Working Group.

Soka University

Gurpreet Kaur
Gurpreet Kaur is currently a Ph.D. candidate student at Soka University. Before this, she received her masters at Amity University, in enviornmental science, specifically water purification systems development. Now, Gurpreet’s focus is interpreting core samples from the beaches of Okinawa. Gurpreet hypothesizes that clues to the effects of future climate change can be found buried deep in these rocks. Gurpreet is determined to complete her doctoral research and continue a lifelong career teaching in academia. Gurpreet’s advice to every young scientist is simple: Be curious, read about what interests you, and always be asking “why?”

2017 SciFI Special Guests

NASA

Mr. Christopher Blackerby
Chris Blackerby has been the NASA Attaché in Asia, based at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, since August 2012. Prior to moving to Tokyo, Chris held several leadership positions in the Office of International and Interagency Relations at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. From 2007-2012 he served as the lead advisor for international cooperation in Earth observation satellite activities as well as strategic planning for all agency cooperation in Asia. In 2010 he began leading a team tasked with developing NASA collaboration with countries in Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America. In this role he served as NASA’s representative in an inter-agency working group focused on improving cooperation in these regions.
Chris began working for NASA as a Presidential Management Fellow in 2003 following completion of his graduate studies. From 2005-2007, he was the Executive Director of the NASA Advisory Council, a group of policy advisers that includes scientists, business leaders and former astronauts that provides strategic planning advice to NASA.
Chris has a degree in History and Education from the University of Richmond (Va.). After receiving his undergraduate degree, he taught history at the junior high and high school level for two years in Seattle, Washington before moving to Japan to teach English. Following two years living, working and traveling in Japan and Southeast Asia, Chris returned to the United States and obtained a Masters degree in Political Science/International Relations from the University of Rhode Island. In 2009 he graduated from Georgetown University with a Masters of Business Administration.

JAXA

RIKEN

Founding Member

Mr. Ravi Chandran Narayanan
Ravi Chandran, hails from India works with a leading Investment Bank in Japan. Ravi has versatile area of interests such as photography, Cooking multinational cuisines, Driving, Mountain hiking/walking and also on Cultural event management. Being a Science graduate Ravi encourages children in learning science by experience and relate with every daily activity. Proud to be part of SciFI and happy to know that Chris is continuing the SciFI every year. Wishing all success.

Previous Guests

Dr. Morgan Thomas

Morgan Thomas is Canadian, and received his PhD from the University of Nottingham, U.K. in Inorganic Chemistry, where he worked on clean chemical processes. His research has been focused on green and sustainable science and engineering for chemical and energy applications.

After working as a postdoctoral researcher on biofuels in Aachen ( Germany), and as a research associate for biomass processing in Saskatoon and Toronto (Canada), he moved to Japan and joined RIKEN to work on the next generation of battery technologies for vehicles. Since October 2014 he has been engaged as a postdoctoral researcher at Yokohama National University and continues his work in green and sustainable science.

Mr. Christopher Blackerby

Chris Blackerby has been the NASA Attaché in Asia, based at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, since August 2012. Prior to moving to Tokyo, Chris held several leadership positions in the Office of International and Interagency Relations at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. From 2007-2012 he served as the lead advisor for international cooperation in Earth observation satellite activities as well as strategic planning for all agency cooperation in Asia. In 2010 he began leading a team tasked with developing NASA collaboration with countries in Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America. In this role he served as NASA’s representative in an interagency working group focused on improving cooperation in these regions.
Chris began working for NASA as a Presidential Management Fellow in 2003 following completion of his graduate studies. From 2005-2007, he was the Executive Director of the NASA Advisory Council, a group of policy advisors that includes scientists, business leaders and former astronauts that provides strategic planning advice to NASA.
Chris has a degree in History and Education from the University of Richmond (Va.). After receiving his undergraduate degree, he taught history at the junior high and high school level for two years in Seattle, Washington before moving to Japan to teach English. Following two years living, working and traveling in Japan and Southeast Asia, Chris returned to the United States and obtained a Masters degree in Political Science/International Relations from the University of Rhode Island. In 2009 he graduated from Georgetown University with a Masters of Business Administration.

Dr. Marco Casolino

Marco Casolino is a physicist responsible for several astrophysics, fundamental physics and radiation experiments carried in space, on satellites, on the Russian Mir and the International Space Station. He has participated in launch operations at Cape Canaveral in Florida and the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. He is co-author of more than 100 papers on scientific journals such as Science and Nature. Currently he is team leader at the RIKEN science Institute in Japan working on the JEM-EUSO experiment. He is also Senior Researcher at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, where he teaches several physics courses. He is author of several outreach books, such as “How to survive radioactivity” dealing on natural and artificial radiation after Fukushima accident, and on Mayan astronomy and mathematics. He is also an author on a novel on Japan, “Grikon”. He keeps a science blog, www.casolino.it and ia co-author of a science outreach podcast, www.scientificast.it .

Dr. Hiroshi Oda

Education

Apr. 2006-Mar. 2009: Ph.D. Graduate School of Science and Technology, Chiba University
- Thesis: “Steady Models of Magnetically Supported Accretion Disks and Its Application to State Transitions in Black Hole Candidates”
- Supervisor: Professor Ryoji Matsumoto
Apr. 2004-Mar. 2006: M.S. Graduate School of Science and Technology, Chiba University
Apr. 2000-Mar. 2004: B.S. Faculty of Science, Department of Physics, Chiba University

Fellowships

Apr. 2008 – Mar. 2010: JSPS Research Fellow　( staying at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics from Jun. 2009 to Mar. 2010)

Employment

Apr. 2013 – present: Researcher at Innovative Technology Research Center, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Dec. 2011 – Mar. 2013: Research Associate/Technical Support Researcher at Center for Computational Astrophysics(CfCA), National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)
Aug. 2010 – Nov. 2011: Postdoctoral Researcher at Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, China
Apr. 2010 – Aug. 2010: Research Associate at Chiba University, Japan

Dr. Akira Mizuta

Affiliation : Computational Astrophysics Laboratory, RIKEN Research field : Theoretical astrophysics Research keywords : black hole, astrophysical jets, numerical hydrodynamic simulation

Dr. Go Ono

Dr. Go Ono is a researcher at Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. He has worked on deep space exploration projects including IKAROS and Hayabusa2. He received a Ph.D. degree from the University of Tokyo in 2014.

Dr. Marco Casolino
Marco Casolino is a physicist responsible for several astrophysics, fundamental physics and radiation experiments carried in space, on satellites, on the Russian Mir and the International Space Station. He has participated in launch operations at Cape Canaveral in Florida and the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. He is co-author of more than 100 papers on scientific journals such as Science and Nature. Currently he is team leader at the RIKEN science Institute in Japan working on the JEM-EUSO experiment. He is also Senior Researcher at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, where he teaches several physics courses. He is author of several outreach books, such as “How to survive radioactivity” dealing on natural and artificial radiation after Fukushima accident, and on Mayan astronomy and mathematics. He is also an author on a novel on Japan, “Grikon”. He keeps a science blog, www.casolino.it and ia co-author of a science outreach podcast, www.scientificast.it .

Dr. Arghya Dutta
Post Doctoral Researcher
Byon Initiative Research Unit
RIKEN, Japan
Email: arghya.dutta@riken.jp
Education
• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, India- 2013
• M.Sc. in Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India- 2008
• B.Sc. in Chemistry, The University of Burdwan, India- 2006
Research
• Design of porous electrocatalysts for Li-O2 battery
• Synthesis of porous materials
• Gas storage
• Ion adsorption
• Catalysis
Research Experience
• Post Doctoral Researcher, Riken, Japan: July, 2013- Present
• Graduate Student, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, India: August, 2008- June, 2013
• GCOE Internship Fellow, Osaka University, Japan: January, 2011- March, 2011
• Master’s Project, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India: July, 2007- April, 2008.

Dr. Morgan Thomas
I’m a Canadian and received my PhD from the University of Nottingham, U.K. in Inorganic Chemistry, where I worked on clean chemical processes. My research has been focused on green and sustainable science and engineering for chemical and energy applications. After working as a postdoctoral researcher on biofuels in Aachen (Germany), and as a research associate for biomass processing in Saskatoon and Toronto (Canada), I joined RIKEN to work on the next generation of battery technologies for vehicles.

Ms. Ruma Mandal
Graduate Student
S N Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences
Salt Lake City, Kolkata, India
Email: ruma.mandal@bose.res.in
Education
• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), S N Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, India- 2010- Present
• M.Sc. in Electronic Sciences, The University of Calcutta, India- 2009
• B.Sc. in Physics, The University of Calcutta, India- 2007
Research
• Spin Waves and Domain Dynamics in Magnonic Crystals
Research Experience
• Graduate Student, S N Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, India: September, 2010- Present
• Visiting Technician, Riken, Japan: October 2013- November 2013
January, 2013- March, 2013
July, 2012- October, 2012
May, 2011- June 2011
• Project Assistant (Level II), Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute, India: March, 2010- September, 2010
• Master’s Project, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, India: July, 2008- March, 2009