PROJECT LEADERS

Since April 2005 until now, Japanese scientists were dispatched to the SEAFDEC Aquaculture Department as Trust Fund Co-Manager and Deputy Chief by the Fisheries Research Agency (FRA), Incorporated Administrative Agency, Japan, to coordinate and promote the project. 

 Dr. Hiroshi Ogata is the present project leader 

Dr. Hiroshi Ogata assumed his Office as the Deputy Chief and Co-Manager of the Government of Japan Trust Fund Project last April 2007 replacing Dr. Koichi Okuzawa. Before his assignment as Deputy Chief and Trust Fund Co-Manager, he was also dispatched to AQD as an Expert on Fish Nutrition and Breeding from October 2001 until February 2006 while working at the Fisheries Division of the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), Japan. Before working at JIRCAS, he has been employed as a Researcher at the Fish Nutrition Division of the National Research Institute from 1978 and as Section Head of the said Division from 1992 until 2001. He was also assigned as an Expert on Fish Nutrition at the National Marine Fisheries Service, National Ocean Atmospheric Administration, Washington, USA in 1991 and at Cantho University in Vietnam from 1997 until 2000. 

He earned his Ph.D. on Fisheries Science (Fish Physiology and Nutrition) at the Faculty of Agriculture, Tohoku University, Japan in 1988 and has authored many publications mostly on Aquaculture, Fish Biology and Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology.

 

Dr. Koichi Okuzawa acted as the project leader from April 2005 to March 2007 

 

 

Dr. Koichi Okuzawa joined AQD as Deputy Chief and GOJ-Trust Fund Co-Manager. Prior to his AQD assignment, he was a senior researcher at the National Research Institute of Aquaculture (NRIA), Fisheries Research Agency (FRA), Japan. He earned his PhD in Agriculture at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tokyo, for his thesis on "Endocrinological studies on environmental influences upon the reproduction of honmoroko, Gnathopogom caerulescence". His employment record includes: stints at the NRIA as researcher for 5 years, and as Senior Researcher for 4 years. He was also a long-term Overseas Researcher (financed by Science and Technology Agency (STA), Japan) in the Research Group for the Comparative Endocrinology at the University of Utrecht of the Netherlands. He also acted as an International Cooperation Researcher at the Research Planning and Coordination Division, NRIA and as Senior Researcher at the Reproduction Group, Farming Biology Division, NRIA. He has published 34 original papers, 23 review papers, and
16 proceedings. He was a member of the editorial board of the Technical Reporls of Japanese Sea Ranching Program. His expertise is in the field of endocrinology, histology, and molecular biology, His research projects includes: Research Program on Establishment of New Technology by Elucidation and Regulation of Biological Information, financed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) (1997); Basic Studies on Neuroendocrine Mechanisms Regulating the Reproduction of Aquatic Animals, financed by STA (1990); Production of New Breed by Modification of Morphology and Function of Animals, financed by the MAFF and FRA (2004); General Research on the Impact and the Mechanisms of Endocrine Disruption on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, financed by MAFF (2002); Development of Sustained and Ecologically Low Impact Aquaculture and Sea Farming System, financed by the FRA (2003); and the Assessment of the Impact of Global Warming on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and Development of the Solution, financed by the MAFF (2004). He was given an Encouragement Award by the Japanese Society of Fisheries Science in 1995 for his contribution in the Fisheries Science. His membership in other academic societies includes The Japanese Society of Fisheries Science, The Zoological Society of Japan, Japan Society for Comparative Endocrinology and the Japanese Society of Chronobiology.

 

Dr. Kazuya Nagasawa acted as the project leader from April 2003 to March 2005

  

 

Dr. Nagasawa is a fish parasitologist and fish ecologist. Prior to his AQD assignment, he was the Director at Nikko Branch of NRIA, Japan. His academic background in Fisheries Science includes a PhD degree (fish health and parasitology, 1981) and a Masters degree (fish health and parasitology, 1978) from the University of Tokyo. He earned his BS in Fisheries Science (aquaculture, 1975) at the Tokyo University of Fisheries. His employment record includes: stints at the Hokkaido Prefectural Fisheries Experimental Station as researcher for 10 years, the National Research Institute of Far Seas Fisheries as Chief Scientist for 10 years, and the NRIA as the Director of the Nikko Branch for 2 years. He authored and coauthored 27 books related to fish parasites and diseases and also fish ecology in both Japanese and English publications. He has also published over 140 original papers, 51 review papers, 90 reports and about 70 scientific essays. He served as editor-in-chief of the International Ichthyoparasitological Newsletter of the International Group for Fish Parasitology and as editorial member of the Bulletin of Japanese Society of Fisheries Society. Likewise, he has served in the editorial board of the academic journals Fish Pathology of the Japanese Society of Fish Pathology, the Journal of Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom which is published by the Oxford University Press. In addition to parasitology, he also worked on fish ecology and fisheries oceanography. He received the R.E. Forester Award in Canada in 1999 with his work with a Canadian scientist on the impact of global warming on the production of Pacific salmon, and was awarded in 2001 by the Japanese Association of Fisheries Journalists with his outstanding work on the ocean ecology of salmon. His expertise on fish parasites and diseases has led to several invitations overseas as an invited lecturer or scientist including among others: the Ocean Research Institute of Kiel University, Germany; Natural History Museum (British Museum), London; Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography, Kamchatka, Russia; and Fisheries Research institute, University of Washington, Seattle, USA.

 

Dr. Yasuo Inui worked as the first health expert from March 2000 to March 2003

  

 

Dr. Inui's areas of expertise are on fish health and fish physiology. Prior to his AQD assignment, he was the Director General of Tohoku National Fisheries Research Institute, Japan. He earned his PhD and Masters degrees in Fisheries Science at the University of Tokyo. His BS in Fisheries Science was earned at the Tokyo University of Fisheries (currently the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology). His job experience includes: Assistant (University of Tokyo), Researcher (Freshwater Fisheries Research Laboratory), Section Chief and Director, Pathology Division (National Research Institute of Aquaculture [NRIA]), Coordinator-Research and Planning Division (Nansei National Fisheries Research Institute), and Director-General (Tohoku National Fisheries Research Institute). He was also in 1997 a Research Associate at the Zoology Department of the University of Washington, USA. He has several publications in scientific journals including: The role of thyroid hormone in tissue development in metamorphosing flounder; cDNA cloning of thyroid hormone receptor B for the flounder; Hormonal control of flounder metamorphosis in perspective in comparative endocrinology; and Effects of bovine TSH on the tissue thyroxine level and metamorphosis in prometamorphic flounder larvae. Aside these, there are other 50 papers published in peer-reviewed international journals.