Yuko Kakazu

Yuko Kakazu, Ph.D., holds the position of Trustee at Akita International University since June 2025 and serves as the Education, Outreach, and Broader Impacts Manager/Scientist at the TMT International Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, starting in February 2023. Yuko is also a Board of Councilor member at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology since November 2023 and has been involved with the NAOJ Subaru Telescope & Thirty Meter Telescope International Observatory as Education and Outreach Scientist since January 2022. Additionally, in January 2019, Yuko began working as a Senior Specialist for the NAOJ Subaru Telescope & TMT-Japan Project. Prior experience includes a role as Outreach Specialist at Subaru Telescope from September 2013 to December 2018, and two postdoctoral positions at the University of Chicago and California Institute of Technology focusing on astrophysics. Yuko's academic background includes a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and a BS in Astrophysics and Physics from Tohoku University, along with an exchange student experience at the University of California, Santa Cruz.