President, Kyoto University
After graduating from Kyoto University’s Faculty of Medicine in 1975, Dr. Minato worked as an associate researcher at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine from 1977–80, before receiving a doctorate in medicine from Kyoto University in 1983. Following clinical practice at the Kyoto University Hospital, he was appointed as professor of immunology and cell biology at the university’s Graduate School of Medicine in 1992, where he served as dean from 2010–14. His main interest is immunology, a field in which he has published approximately 220 scientific papers throughout his career. In 2002, he invented PD-1 checkpoint blockade cancer immunotherapy with Dr. Tasuku Honjo. After serving as Kyoto University’s provost and executive vice-president, Dr. Minato was appointed as president in 2020.