Dr. Akio Tani is an Associate Professor (2014 - current) at the Institute of Plant Science and Resources, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan. Dr. Tani was educated at Kyoto University (Ph.D 2001), and from there became an Assistant Professor at IPSR Okayama University (2001-2013). He was a Visiting Researcher at ETH Zurich (2012-2013). Dr. Tani’s research focuses on lanthanide-dependent switching of methanol metabolism and taxonomy of Methylobacterium species, and the structure and function of the microbiome in barley-rice cropping. Dr. Mitsui is a Professor (2016-current) within the Faculty of Life Science, Department of Biochemistry, at Okayama University of Science, Okayama, Japan. He was educated at Kyoto University (Ph. D, 1998), and from there became an Assistant Professor at Okayama University of Science (1998-2008), as well as an Associate Professor at Okayama University of Science (2008-2016). He was also a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Dr. Mary E. Lidstrom Laboratory, at the University of Washington (2005-2006). His research interests include lanthanide-dependent chemical communication between plants and C1 bacteria. Dr. Nakagawa is a Professor (2012-) within the Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences at Gifu University, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. He was educated at Kyoto University (Ph.D, 1999), and following this became an Assistant Professor at the Tokyo University of Agriculture (1999-2007), and an Associate Professor at Gifu University (2007-2012). Dr. Nakagawa’s research focuses on regulation of methanol metabolism in C1 yeasts and lanthanide-dependent C1 bacteria, as well as molecular mechanisms of alcohol fermentation in budding yeast.
