is a Japanese scientist in the fields of systems biology and computer science, best known as the founder of the E-Cell simulation system and/or the inventor of GLR parser algorithm. He served a professor of

Keio University , abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university located in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally established as a school for Rangaku, Western studies in 1858 in Edo. It was granted university status in 1920, becomi ...

, Director of the Institute for Advanced Biosciences, and the founder and board member of various spinout companies, including Human Metabolome Technologies, Inc. and Spiber Inc. He is also the co-founder and on the board of directors of The Metabolomics Society. His father was the composer and synthesiser player Isao Tomita. From Oct. 2005 to Sep. 2007, he served as Dean of Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University. He received an M.S. (1983) and a Ph.D. (1985) in computer science from

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

(CMU) under

Jaime Carbonell Jaime Guillermo Carbonell (July 29, 1953 – February 28, 2020) was a computer scientist who made seminal contributions to the development of natural language processing tools and technologies. His extensive research in machine translation resul ...

, and three other doctoral degrees in electronic engineering (

Kyoto University , or , is a National university, national research university in Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 1897, it is one of the former Imperial Universities and the second oldest university in Japan. The university has ten undergraduate faculties, eighteen gra ...

, 1994), molecular biology (

, 1998), and media and governance (Keio University, 2019). At CMU, starting in 1985, Tomita achieved a series of academic promotions from assistant professor to associate professor of computer science and from 1986 he became an associate director of the Center for Machine Translation. In 1990, he returned to Keio University and served as associate professor, professor, and Dean of the faculty of Environmental Information. At Keio University, he shifted his research emphasis to the studies of

molecular biology Molecular biology is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactio ...

and

systems biology Systems biology is the computational modeling, computational and mathematical analysis and modeling of complex biological systems. It is a biology-based interdisciplinary field of study that focuses on complex interactions within biological system ...

. In 2001, he founded Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University in Tsuruoka City, Yamagata Prefecture, and served as Director of the institute until 2023. Tomita is a recipient of the

Presidential Young Investigator Award The Presidential Young Investigator Award (PYI) was awarded by the National Science Foundation of the United States Federal Government. The program operated from 1984 to 1991, and was replaced by the NSF Young Investigator (NYI) Awards and Preside ...

from the National Science Foundation of the USA (1988), IBM Japan Science Prize (2002), IBM Shared University Research Award (2003), Minister of Science and Technology Policy Award (2004), The Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (2007), Audi Innovation Award (2016), International Metabolomics Society Lifetime Honorary Fellow (2017), 68th Kahoku Bunka Prize (2019), 5th Bioindustry Award Grand Prize (2021), and 27th Momofuku Ando Award Grand Prize (2023).

Selected papers

*"Building Working Cells 'in Silico'", Science 1999; 284-5411:80 - 81 *"Going for Grand Challenges", Nature 1999; 402:C70 *"E-CELL: Software environment for whole cell simulation", Bioinformatics 1999; 15:72-84 *"Computerized role models: Japan's push to create a virtual cell signals a new approach to research", Nature 2002; 417 *"Multiple high-throughput analyses monitor the response of E. coli to perturbations", Science 2007; 316:593-7

References

External links

Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University

Human Metabolome Technologies, Inc.

The E-Cell Project

The Metabolomics Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomita, Masaru Living people Carnegie Mellon University alumni Keio University alumni Japanese computer scientists Japanese molecular biologists 1957 births Scientists from Tokyo Metropolis