skip to main content
Home  /  Curriculum Vitae

Curriculum Vitae

Biosketch

After completing his graduate studies in two years, Ooguri became a tenured faculty member of the University of Tokyo in 1986. He was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and was appointed an assistant professor at the University of Chicago before receiving his Ph.D. in 1989. After four years as an associate professor at Kyoto University, he returned to the United States in 1994 as a full professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley.

In 2000, Ooguri moved to Caltech, where he is the inaugural holder of the Fred Kavli Chair. He served for five years as Deputy Chair of the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy, the equivalent of an associate dean of the physical sciences. He led the establishment of the Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics, was named its Founding Director in 2014, and is serving his third term.

Ooguri was a Founding Principal Investigator of the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe at the University of Tokyo for fifteen years and served as its Director from 2018 to 2023. In 2024, the University of Tokyo honored him with the title of University Professor.

Ooguri was a General Member of the Aspen Center for Physics for twenty years and served as Scientific Secretary, a Trustee, President, and Chair of the Board of Trustees. He was elected an Honorary Trustee for Life in 2023.

Ooguri has received the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon from the Emperor of Japan, the Eisenbud Prize for Mathematics and Physics from the American Mathematical Society, the Simons Investigator Award from the Simons Foundation, the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Hamburg Prize and the Humboldt Research Award in Germany, the Louis Michel Chair at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHÉS) in France, the Frontiers of Science Award at the International Congress of Basic Science in China, the Benjamin Lee Distinguished Professorship in Korea, and the Nishina Memorial Prize and the Chunichi Cultural Award in Japan. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Mathematical Society.

Ooguri's popular science books have sold over 300,000 copies in Japan, and one of them won the Kodansha Prize for Science Books. He also supervised a science movie, which was selected for the Best Educational Production Award from the International Planetarium Society and has been translated into six languages.

Education

Years Degrees Institutions
1989 Doctor of Science, Doctoral Thesis University of Tokyo
1986 Master of Science Kyoto University
1984 Bachelor of Science Kyoto University

Academic Appointments

California Institute of Technology

Years Titles
2014 - present Founding Director of the Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics
2007 - present Fred Kavli Professor in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics
2010 - 2015 Deputy Chair of the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy
2000 - 2007 Professor of Theoretical Physics

Aspen Center for Physics

Years Titles
2023 - present Honorary Trustee for Life
2021 - 2024 Chair of the Board of Trustees
2016 - 2019 President
2011 - 2016 Trustee
2010 - 2011 Scientific Secretary
2003 - 2023 General Member

University of Tokyo

Years Titles
2024 - present University Professor
2018 - 2023 Director, Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe
2007 - 2022 Principal Investigator, Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe
1986 - 1989 Assistant Professor (tenured), Department of Physics

Other Academic Institutions

Years Titles Institutions
2024 - present Louis Michele Chair Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHÉS)
1994 - 2000 Professor University of California, Berkeley
1995 - 2000 Faculty Senior Scientist Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
1990 - 1994 Associate Professor at RIMS Kyoto University
1989 - 1990 Assistant Professor University of Chicago
1988 - 1989 Member Institute for Advanced Study

Awards & Honors

Years Awards Awarding Bodies
2024 Frontiers of Science Award International Congress of Basic Science
2023 Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Foundation
2021 Benjamin Lee Distinguished Professorship Korean Physical Society & APCTP
2019 Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon Emperor of Japan
2018 Hamburg Prize Joachim Herz Foundation
2017 Member Japan Writers' Association
2016 Best Educational Production Award International Planetarium Society
2016 Fellow American Academy of Arts and Sciences
2016 Chunichi Cultural Award Chunichi Shimbun
2014 Kodansha Prize for Science Books Kodansha
2012 Fellow in the Inaugural Class American Mathematical Society
2012 Simons Investigator Simons Foundation (renewed in 2023)
2009 Nishina Memorial Prize Nishina Memorial Foundation
2008 Takagi Lecturer Mathematical Society of Japan
2008 Humboldt Research Award Alexandar Von Humboldt Foundation
2008 Eisenbud Prize for Mathematics and Physics American Mathematical Society
1999 One of the Best Instructors Class of 1999, UC Berkeley

Distinguished Lectures

Years Lectures Hosts
2024 Sakata-Hayakawa Memorial Lecture Nagoya University
2024 Ta-You Wu Lecture University of Michigan
2024 Pioneers in Theoretical Physics Colloqium University of British Columbia
2023 Arnold Sommerfeld Lectures Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
2022 Science Lectureship Award Chiba University
2019 Nishina Memorial Lecture Nishina Memorial Foundation
2019 Wolfgang Pauli Lectures Hamburg University and DESY
2019 Bethe Colloquium University of Bonn
2019 Hamilton Colloquium Princeton University
2018 Distinguished Lecture ICTS, Bangalore
2017 Annual General Assembly Lecture Physical Society of Japan
2016 Distinguished Lecture Taiwan National Center for Theoretical Sciences
2013 Lecture at the First Annual Meeting Simons Foundation, MPS
2012 Annual General Assembly Lecture RIKEN
2009 Colloquium Ehrenfestii Leiden University

Visiting Appointments

Years Institutions Appointments
2023 Spring Harvard University Bershadsky Distinguished Visitnig Fellow
2019  Spring Galileo Galilei Institute, Florence Simons Visiting Professor
2016  Spring Harvard University Visiting Scholar
2015  Fall Institute for Advanced Study Director's Visiting Professor
2007  Spring University of Tokyo Visiting Professor
1994  Fall Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, Paris Visiting Professor
1992 Fall -1993 Summer Harvard University Visiting Scholar

Services to Caltech

Years Committees Roles
2003 - 2023 Physics Colloquium Committee Chair in 2012 - 2015 and 2019 - 2023
2001 - 2019 Physics Faculty Search Committee Co-Chair in 2003 - 2006
2015 - 2016 Physics Graduate Committee
2012 - 2015 Undergraduate Admissions Committee
2011 - 2014 University Faculty Board Steering Committee Member in 2012 - 2014
2001 - 2002 and 2010 - 2012 PMA Long-Term Strategic Planning Committee Chair in 2010 - 2012
2004 - 2017 Mathematics Faculty Search Committee

Advisory and Review Committees

Years Committees
Multiple Years Review Panels for DOE and NSF
2005-2008 Advisory Committee of Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, UC Santa Barbara
2005-present International Scientific Committee of "Strings" Conference Series
2008, 2012, 2015, 2018 Advisory Committee of Solvay Institutes
2008-2011 Advisory Committee of Banff International Research Station
2011-present Steering Committee of Kavli Asian Winter School
2013-2017 Steering Committee of Research Institute for Mathematical Sciencers at Kyoto University
2013 Review Committee of Institute for Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
2015 Scientific Committee of International Congress of Mathematical Physics
2016, 2019 Permanent Staff Search Committee of CERN Theory Group
2018-present Advisory Committee of Center for Quantum Mathematics and Physics at UC Davis
2018 Review Committee of Korea Institute for Advanced Study
2018 Review Committee of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
2019 Lead Editor Search Committee for Physical Review D
2019-present Scientific Council of ICTP-AP, Beijing
2019-present Advisory Committee of Cluster of Excellence Quantum Universe at Hamburg University
2019-present Steering Committee of "String-Math" Conference Series
2020 Elector, Rouse Ball Professorship, Oxford University
2020 Committee of Visitors, US Department of Energy, Office of High Energy Physics
2020-present International Advisory Board, Tohoku Forum for Creativity, Tohoku University
2020-present International Scientific Committee, Beijing Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Applications
2022-present Scientific Committee of Pollica Physics Centre in Salerno, Italy
2023-2025 Advisory Board, Universities for International Research Excellence, MEXT, Japan
2023-2025 Advisory Panel on Functions and Organization of the Science Council of Japan, Cabinet Office, Japan
2024-present International Advisory Board, Center for Mathematical Physics Hamburg
2024-present Scientific Advisory Committee, Leung Center for Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics, Taiwan
2024--resent Scientific Advisory Board, the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Garching, Germany

Prize Selection Committees

Years Prizes
2014 Kyoto Prize
2016 - 2021 Nishina Memorial Prize
2017 - 2018, 2022 - 2024 Soros Fellowship for New Americans
2019 Hoshi Shinichi Literary Award
2019 - 2020 Inamori Research Institute for Science Fellowship
2022 - present Marie Sklodowska Curie Award
2023 - present American Academy of Arts and Sciences Membership Panel
2024 American Physical Society Heineman Prize

Editorial Boards

Years Journals
1997-2006 Journal of High Energy Physics (JHEP)
1997-present Advances in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics
1998-2013 Nuclear Physics B
2006-2009 Physical Review D
2014-2015 Communications in Mathematical Physics
2019- SpringerBriefs in Mathematical Physics

Ooguri organized major conferences including Strings '98, Strings 2003, Strings 2018, and String-Math 2018.

Conference Organization

"Strings" Conferences Strings 1998  Santa Barbara, California
Strings 2003  Kyoto, Japan
Strings 2018  Okinawa, Japan
(Member of the Planning Committee since 2022)
"String-Math" Conference String-Math 2018  Sendai, Japan
(Member of the Steering Committee since 2019)
Aspen Center for Physics Workshops Duality in Physics and Mathematics (1996)
Strings, Branes, and Superpotentials, (2004)
String theory and Quantum Geometry (2007)
Unity of String Theory (2009)
Mathematics of Superconformal Field Theory (2013)
Burke Institute Conferences at Caltech Inaugural Symposium (2015)
Gravitational Wave (2014)
Grassmannian Geometry and Scattering Amplitudes (2014)
F-Theory at 20 (2016)
General Relativity at 100 (2016)
Kavli IPMU Conferences Opening Symposium (2008)
Theoretical Physics and Mathematics in Asia (2008)
Quantum Black Holes (2008)
Wall Crossing and New Invariants (2009)
Condensed Matter and String Theory (2010)
Gauge and String Theory (2013)
Holography and QCD (2013)
Goddard Symposium (2014)
Condensed Matter and AdS/CFT (2015)
Seiberg Symposium (2016)
Statistics, Quantum Information, and Gravity (2016)
Kavli IPMU 10th Anniversary Symposium (2017)
Kavli Asian Winter School Kusatsu, Japan (2012)
Okinawa, Japan (2016)
Sendai, Japan (2020)
(Member of the Steering Committee since 2011)
KITP Workshops, Santa Barbara Duality in String Theory (1998)
Mathematical Structure in String Theory (2005)
Swampland and Quantum Gravity Constraints (2019)
ICTP Spring School, Trieste Co-Director with Ashoke Sen in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006
Simons Symposia on Quantum Entanglement 2013, 2015, 2017
Galileo Galilei Institute Workshop, Florence String and M Theory Approaches to Particle Physics and Cosmology (2007)
Americal Physical Society Meetings DPF meeting at the College of William and Mary (2002)
Joint Meeting of DPF and JPS in Honolulu, Hawaii (2006)
Banff International Research Station Conference Frontiers in String Theory (2006)
International Congres of Mathematical Physics String Theory Session, Lisbon (2003)
John Schwarz's 60th Birthday Conference Caltech (2001)
John Schwarz's 75th Birthday Conference Caltech (2016)
Tohru Eguchi's 60th Birthday Conference Kyoto (2008)
The 50th Anniversary of the Quark Prediction Caltech (2013)
Murray Gell-Mann Memorial Symposium Caltech (2020)