Prof. Jens Nielsen is a Professor of Quantitative Systems Biology at Chalmers University of Technology, and the Chief Executive Officer of the BioInnovation Institute in Denmark. He is the world’s most highly cited researcher in his field.

Prof. Nielsen has a master’s degree in chemical engineering and a doctorate in biochemical engineering from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). He was a Fulbright Visiting Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before becoming a full professor at DTU in 1998. In 2008 he joined Chalmers University of Technology as the Head of the Department of Biology and Biological Engineering.

He is a co-founder of The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, serving as chief science officer from 2013 to 2018. In 2019, he was appointed CEO of the BioInnovation Institute in Denmark, a €500 million initiative to foster translational research and support early-stage life science start-up companies.

Over his career, Prof. Nielsen has supervised more than 150 PhD students and over 110 post-doctoral researchers. His more than 900 publications have exceeded 135,000 citations, and he has co-authored more than 40 books. In addition, he holds more than 50 patents and is the founder of multiple biotech companies that have raised over €100 million in financing. 

His numerous honors include the Nature Mentor Award, the ENI Award, the Eric and Sheila Samson Prime Minister Prize, the Novozymes Prize, and the Gold Medal from the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. He is a member of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; the Chinese Academy of Engineering; the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters; the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences; and the American Academy of Microbiology. Prof. Nielsen was the founding president of the International Metabolic Engineering Society. Most recently, he has been engaged with OIST as Chair of the OIST International Perspective Council.

Leilee Chojnacki is a condensed matter physicist, with an active life in University leadership spanning half a decade. Leilee has a master’s degree in theoretical physics from Perimeter Institute, under accreditation from the University of Waterloo, and a doctorate in physics from OIST. Leilee’s work at OIST provided theoretical underpinnings for realizing an analogue of gravitational waves in cold atoms. In the last year, she has combined her long standing passions for the study of complex phenomena and environmental advocacy to work on the quantification of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions through process-based simulation at Karlsruhe Institute for Technology’s Campus Alpin.
 

“Academic dress” is part of a tradition spanning a thousand years of history, connecting us to the first universities in Europe. Originally the dress was worn daily by students and professors alike; however, its use now is restricted to formal occasions at universities.

OIST’s academic dress was designed entirely by the students, and follows the red, white, and black of the OIST colors. The hood, worn only by OIST PhD graduates, features a local textile called Yuntanza Minsa, woven with the Guushi-Bana method of forming the pattern with a pointed bamboo stick. The design of the hood combines local patterns for good fortune, with stylized sine waves representing the sciences.

The hoods are generously hand-woven from locally hand-dyed cotton from Yuntanza Hanaui, a craft-weavers guild from nearby Yomitan Village, and we thank them for their wonderful contribution.

Every year, our graduation ceremony starts with a performance of traditional Okinawan dance (琉球舞踊) and music by OIST community members.

In 2025, we will enjoy "Kajadifu," the most famous of the congratulatory dances, performed on occasions of joy, such as celebrations and inaugurations. Rich in the primary forms and techniques of Ryukyuan dance, such as the use of decorative fans, it is a celebration of the joy of life and one of the most important dances in the canon.