Education & Outreach

Ooguri has taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses, including quantum mechanics, statistical physics, mathematical methods in physics, group theory, probability & statistics, geometry & topology, quantum field theory, and general relativity.

In 1999, he was voted as one of best instructors by graduating seniors at the University of California at Berkeley.

Caltech Interview on Science Communication

Ooguri has published 8 popular science books in Japanese, and over 300,000 copies have been sold. They have been translated into Chinese and Korean. His "Introduction to Superstring Theory" was awarded the 2014 Kodansha Prize for Science Books, Japan's only major prize for science books.

Ooguri has written a monthly popular science series for three and half years on the Universe in Weekly Diamond, a business magazine of the highest circulation in Japan (Jaunary, 2015 - May, 2018) and a weekly column for six months in Chunichi Shimbun and Tokyo Shimbun, major newspapers in Japan (January - June, 2017). He is also a contributing writer to the on-line OP-ed page of Asahi Shimbun, another major newspaper.

Ooguri was a scientific adviser for "The Man from the 9 Dimensions," a 3D dome theater movie, which received the 2016 Best Educational Production Award from the International Planetarium Society.

Ooguri has given many outreach lectures including`:

• 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Kobayashi-Maskawa Theory, Tokyo, Japan (18 February 2023)
• Public Lecture at the University of Tokyo, "What is Gravity" (22 October 2022)
• Dialogue with Cumrun Vafa, "Puzzles to Unravel the Universe," Tokyo, Japan (19 October 2022)
• Public lecture at the Embassy of Japan in London, UK (16 September 2022)
• Science and Music, Aspen, Colorado (8 August 2022)
• Science & Cocktails, Amsterdam, Holland (13 June 2022)
• Lecture at Horikawa High School, Kyoto (27 April 2022)
• 3 public lectures in Tokyo in 2022
• Speech at the Entrance Ceremony of the Graduate School of the University of Tokyo (12 April 2022)
• 5 public lectures in Tokyo in 2021
• WPI Symposium at the University of Tokyo (12 January 2020)
• Hamburg Planetarium, Hamburg, Germany (8 November 2018)
• Nehru Planetarium, Mumbai, India (27 April 2018)
• Nehru Planetarium, Bangalore, India (14 January 2018)
• Heinz Pagels Memorial Lecture, Aspen, Colorado (2013, 2017)
• Collège de France, Paris (2016)
• Phillips Exeter Academy (2016)
• University of Tokyo (2011, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2019)
• Kyoto University (2017)
• Miraikan, Science Museum in Tokyo (2016)
• Japanese Physical Soceity (2014)
• Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (2014)
• Headquarter of Toyota Moter Company (2013)
• Toyota Municipal Museum of Art (2013)
• Chunichi Cultural Center, Nagoya (2014, 2015, 2016)
• Asahi Cultural Center, Tokyo (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)
• Heisei Foundation for Basic Science (2013)
• KEK (2013)
• TEDxUTokyo (2012)
• RIKEN Annual Assembly (2012).
• Caltech Seminar Day (2008)
• High School Teachers' Educational Forum, KITP, Santa Barbara (2001)
• Wonderfest, Berkeley, (2000)

Ooguri was an advisor to the TV program of NHK, the public broadcasting cooporation in Japan, on superstring theory. He was also an advisor to the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation to produce a 3D dome theater movie on superstring theory.