Professor Mari Dezawa graduated from Chiba University School of Medicine, Chiba, Japan, in 1989, was awarded the degree of MD, and worked as a resident in the Department of Internal Medicine at Chiba University Hospital. She started Neural Regeneration Research at the Department of Histology, Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine, was awarded her PhD in 1995, and continued her studies at Yokohama City University.

After moving to Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine as Associate Professor in 2003, she developed methods to induce human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to form neural and skeletal muscle cells (J. Clin. Invest, 2004; Science, 2005).

In 2008, she was appointed Professor and Chair of the Department of Stem Cell Biology and Histology at Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, where she discovered reparative pluripotent stem cells, Multilineage-Differentiating Stress Enduring (MUSE) stem cells, residing in the body (PNAS, 2010; PNAS, 2011; Nat Protocol, 2013; Cell Mol Life Sci, 2022).

Her team conducted pre-clinical studies for MUSE stem cells (Stroke, 2017; JASN, 2017; Cir Res, 2018; Mol Ther, 2020; Am J Transpl, 2021; JCBFM, 2021; J Invest Dermatol. 2021) and conducted clinical studies for their application in acute myocardial infarction, subacute stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, epidermolysis bullosa, neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, and cervical spinal cord injury (Stem Cell Transl Med, 2024).

She has been awarded several prizes, including the Prize for The Commendation for Science and Technology, Japan Government (2011). In 2018, she was appointed a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) in the USA.

Kenneth Ford is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC) — a not-for-profit research institute located in Pensacola, Florida. IHMC has grown into one of the nation’s premier research organizations with world-class scientists and engineers investigating a broad range of topics related to building technological systems aimed at amplifying and extending human cognition, perception, locomotion, and resilience. Richard Florida has described IHMC as “a new model for interdisciplinary research institutes that strive to be both entrepreneurial and academic, firmly grounded and inspiringly ambitious.” IHMC headquarters are in Pensacola with a branch research facility in Ocala, Florida. Ford is the author of hundreds of scientific papers and six books. Ford received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Tulane University. He is Emeritus Editor-in-Chief of AAAI/MIT Press and has been involved in the editing of several journals. Ford is a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, a charter Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, a member of the Association for Computing Machinery, a member of the IEEE Computer Society, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.   

In January 1997, Ford was asked by NASA to develop and direct its new Center of Excellence in Information Technology at the Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. He served as Associate Center Director and Director of NASA’s Center of Excellence in Information Technology. In July 1999, Ford was awarded the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal. That same year, Ford returned to private life and to the IHMC. 

In October of 2002, Ford was nominated to serve on the National Science Board (NSB) and the United States Senate confirmed his nomination in March of 2003. The NSB is the governing board of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and plays an important role in advising the President and Congress on science policy issues. In 2005, Ford was appointed and sworn in as a member of the Air Force Science Advisory Board. In 2007, he became a member of the NASA Advisory Council and on October 16, 2008, Ford was named as Chairman – a capacity in which he served until October 2011. In February of 2012, Ford was named to a two-year term on the Defense Science Board (DSB). In 2013, he became a member of the Advanced Technology Board which supports the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). In 2018, Dr. Ford was appointed to the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence.

Ford has received many awards and honors. In 2004 Florida Trend Magazine named Ford one of Florida’s four most influential citizens working in academia. The University of Bordeaux awarded the Doctor Honoris Causas in 2005. In 2008 the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) award Ford the Robert S. Englemore Memorial Award for his work in artificial intelligence. In August 2010, Ford was awarded NASA’s Distinguished Public Service Medal – the highest honor the agency confers.  In 2012 Tulane University named Ford its Outstanding Alumnus in the School of Science and Engineering. In 2015, AAAI named Ford the recipient of the 2015 Distinguished Service Award. Also, in 2015, he was elected as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In 2017 Ford was inducted into the Florida Inventor’s Hall of Fame. In 2020, Florida Trend Magazine named Ford one of its Living Legends, a list of all-time influential Florida leaders in business, medicine, academia, entertainment, politics, and sport.