Rate My Professor Takeshi Imai

Takeshi Imai is Professor in the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Kyushu University and serves as Distinguished Professor since October 2024. He earned his B.Sc. in Biophysics and Biochemistry from the University of Tokyo in 2001 and his Ph.D. from the same institution’s Graduate School of Science in 2006. Prior to his appointment at Kyushu University in 2017, he held positions including Team Leader at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology from 2010 to 2018, Adjunct Associate Professor at Kyoto University from 2010 to 2017, and PRESTO researcher at the Japan Science and Technology Agency from 2009 to 2015. His research centers on neuroscience and developmental biology, with emphasis on neural circuit formation, olfaction, tissue clearing techniques such as SeeDB and SeeDB2, and light microscopy-based connectomics. He has received multiple honors, including the Kao Science Award in 2024, the Nakatani Award Incentive Prize in 2024, the MEXT Young Scientists’ Prize in 2015, and the GE & Science Prize for Young Life Scientists in 2007. Recent publications include work on isotonic optical clearing media for live cell imaging in Nature Methods (2026) and dendritic spine formation in Science Advances (2026). Imai contributes to the field through development of imaging methods that enable detailed analysis of neural circuits and has been recognized for advancing understanding of brain wiring and related disorders.