Research Organization

Yoshihiro Nishiaki, who received his B.A. (1983) and M.A. (1985) degrees in archaeology from the University of Tokyo and his Ph.D. from University College London (1992), is a professor at The University Museum, The University of Tokyo (UMUT) in Tokyo, Japan. Currently, he also serves as the Director of UMUT. His other positions include Director of the JP Tower Museum Intermediatheque, President of the Japan Association for University Museums, President of the Japan Society for Human and Nature Studies, and many others. He is also a member of the International Academy of Prehistory and Protohistory. His research involves the prehistory of West and Central Asia, focusing on reconstructing the evolution of human behavior through archaeological fieldwork and stone tool analysis. Nishiaki has directed numerous field investigations of Paleolithic and Neolithic sites in Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and others. One of his recent government-aided research projects is the Cultural History of PaleoAsia (2016–2020), which directly led to the Mathematical Prehistory project (2024–2028). He coordinates and directs the project as its Principal Investigator. Concurrently, he undertakes an analysis of the archaeological database PaleoAsiaDB to develop collaboration with mathematical modelers.

• http://nishiaki-labo.jp/english/

Seiji Kadowaki is a professor in prehistoric archaeology at Nagoya University Museum and the Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Japan, after his academic positions at The University of Tokyo and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He studied archaeology at The University of Tokyo, Japan (B.A. and M.A.), The University of Tulsa, U.S.A. (M.A.), and University of Toronto, Canada (Ph.D.). Since 2016, he has led archaeological fieldwork of Paleolithic sites in Jordan as part of the inter-disciplinary projects, Cultural history of PaleoAsia (2016–2020) and Prehistoric archaeology of resource use behaviors and the development of modern human societies in the arid inland Levant (2020–2024), supported by the grants of MEXT/JSPS KAKENHI. In these projects, he investigated cultural changes around the time of Neanderthal extinction and the dispersals of Homo sapiens in Eurasia, using archaeological materials excavated in southern Jordan. These studies will be expanded in the current project of Mathematical Prehistory of Homo sapiens.

• https://profs.provost.nagoya-u.ac.jp/html/100000337_en.html
• https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zoOshTEAAAAJ&hl=en

Joe Yuichiro Wakano, who received his B.A. (1996) and M.A. (1998) degrees in biological sciences from Kyoto University and his Ph.D. from Kyoto University (2001), is a professor at School of Interdisciplinary Mathematical Sciences, Meiji University. His research involves unified understanding of two major theories of biological evolution, evolution of learning ability, and pattern formation. His research on eco-cultural range expansion model, which is a reaction-diffusion model of competition among modern and archaic humans, is one of the main research outputs and building blocks of the Cultural History of PaleoAsia (2016-2020) and the Mathematical Prehistory projects, both of which he participates as Co-Investigator.

• https://joewakano.sakura.ne.jp/research/

Toru Tamura, who received his B.A. (1999), M.A. (2001), and Ph.D. (2004) degrees in geology from Kyoto University, is a Chief Senior Researcher at Geological Survey of Japan, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). Currently, he is also a conjunct professor at Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo. He serves as an editorial board member of several international geoscience journals, such as Marine Geology and Geomorphology. He has extensive experience in Quaternary geology with particular expertise in the application of luminescence dating to coastal landforms and sediments. He founded and leads the luminescence dating laboratory at AIST, which has been utilized for constraining the chronology of Paleolithic sites over recent years.

• https://staff.aist.go.jp/toru.tamura/

Kohei Tamura, who received his B.A. from Nagoya University in 2008 and his M.A. (2010) and Ph.D. (2013) in biological science from the University of Tokyo, is an associate professor at the Center for Northeast Asian Studies, Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. His other position includes an associate professor at the Graduate School of Environmental Studies and the Head of Knowledge and Communication Unit of the Center for Integrated Japanese Studies, Tohoku University. His research covers mathematical modeling and quantitative data analyses of a broad range of human behavior, with particular focus on cultural evolution and prehistoric archaeology.

• http://tamyu.jp/lab/