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FEATURES
The Rigakubu News

DATE2022.09.20 #FEATURES#The Rigakubu News

Meet Researchers in the Sciences Vol.3 Hitomi Yanaka

Enjoy the present moment to the fullest and carve out your own path.

 

 Hitomi Yanaka

Tenured Lecturer (Excellent Young Researcher),
Graduate School of Information Science and Technology,
Department of Computer Science, The University of Tokyo

 

In 2013, received her M.S. degree from the Department of Chemical System Engineering, School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo. In the same year, she joined Nomura Research Institute, Ltd. In 2018, she received her Ph.D. from the Department of Systems Innovation, School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo. In 2018, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project, and in 2021, selected as a Excellent Young Researcher at the University of Tokyo.

Q. What was your favorite subject as a child?
A. Japanese and Science 
I liked all subjects, but especially Japanese and science. In Japanese, it was interesting to learn new expressions and phrases that I had never used before, and in science, I liked the experiments in the laboratory.

 

Q. What were your interests when you were in junior high or high school?
A. Internet 
I have kept a diary since I was a child, and since junior high school I have loved blogging and creating websites on the Internet. I was attracted to the Internet because of its ability to connect with people from all over the world in an instant.

 

Q. What books or textbooks would you recommend for students?
A. Treatise on the Philosophy of Logic (Iwanami Bunko) by Wittgenstein, translated by Shigeki Noya
Although the content is difficult, the clear writing on the issues that everyone thinks about at least once, such as what thinking is and what meaning is, makes us think about the unshakable truth.

 

Q. Who is your motto?
A. once-in-a-lifetime encounter (henceforth referred to as a "once-in-a-lifetime encounter")
Everyday I feel that every moment is a once-in-a-lifetime event that I want to cherish, such as when I eat something delicious, when a pleasant breeze blows, or when I understand something that I did not understand. 

 

Q. Here's what I like about the University of Tokyo, School of Science!
A. Academic and free atmosphere and people
The people and atmosphere in the Faculty of Science are free and full of wisdom, and I am inspired every day that there are still many things I don't know and would like to know.

 

Q. What are your hobbies?
A. Music (Jazz Piano)
I like jazz, especially because my father has been playing jazz and western music for me since I was a child. I play the piano. My father plays jazz guitar as a hobby, so we often play together.

 

Q. What are your sources of inspiration?
A. When walking or taking a bath
Although I am always unconsciously thinking in a hazy way, I feel that good ideas often come to me when I am walking or taking a bath, comparatively speaking. What is good for the body may also be good for the mind.

 

Q. What if you could reborn?
A. Enjoy my life to the fullest once again.
When I was an undergraduate student, I majored in applied chemistry, which is a completely different major from my current major, so if I could go back in time, I would like to choose various options, such as choosing my current major from the beginning.
 

 

ー Message ー

Take your curiosity with you and live each day to the fullest.

 

The web magazine of the School of Science, "Rigakuru",
introduces a detailed interview article.

 

― This article is from the "Meet Researchers in the Sciences" series in The Rigakubu News ―


Translated by Office of Communication