Mayumi KimuraMayumi Kimura

Education/Academic background

Graduated from Kanazawa University (MSc in biology) and completed a Ph.D. in physiology at Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan. Mayumi Kimura was formally appointed at the Tokyo Medical and Dental University (1989-2003), The University of Tennessee, Memphis (1990-1993), The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas (1994-1995), Louisiana State University Pennington Biomedical Research Center (1995-1996), and Tulane University School of Medicine (1997-1998). From 2003 till 2018, she was appointed as a Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry. During the last 35 years, she specialized in pre-clinical/basic sleep research with a focus on the neuro-humoral mechanisms of sleep-wake regulation. She advocated that sleep-wake behavior is under strong homeostatic control via immune challenge induction, gender-specific changes, and stress-driven sleep responses. Back in Japan since June, 2018, Mayumi has shifted her scientific career from bench to administration. First appointed as Project Associate Professor at International Research Center for Neurointelligence (WPI-IRCN), The University of Tokyo (2018-2020), then as Professor at WPI-IIIS, University of Tsukuba. Currently she serves as IIIS Administrative Director (2021-).