Taketo Handa

I am an experimental condensed matter physicist and will start a full-time Assistant Professor position at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in late fall 2026. My research focuses on the development and application of ultrafast techniques to interrogate and navigate how solid-state materials and quantum matter respond to electromagnetic waves and how they convert, transport, and store energy and information through collective excitations and quasiparticles. Current interests include nanoscale electron and quasiparticle dynamics in the terahertz (1012 Hz) frequency regime, where future (and some current) electronic and spintronic technologies operate. Ultimately, my research aims to unlock quantum (and classical) effects to enable new optoelectronic mechanisms for energy conversion and information technologies. 
Prior to joining OIST, I was a JSPS Overseas Research Fellow and later an Associate Research Scientist at Columbia University, working with Prof. Xiaoyang Zhu. I obtained my Ph.D. from Kyoto University in 2020 under the supervision of Prof. Yoshihiko Kanemitsu and B.S. from Nagoya University in 2015. I was born and raised in Fukuoka, on Kyushu Island, close to Okinawa.