Atsuko NAKATSUKA

Atsuko Nakatsuka has been executive vice president for infrastructure and administration at Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo) since April 2026. She has also served concurrently as executive vice president for environmental health and safety, and as director general, during this period.

After spending three years at Nagoya University as head of the Research Promotion Division, Research Cooperation Department, Nakatsuka moved to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in 2012. She served as deputy director of the Research Promotion Bureau’s Academic Research Grant Division, and then as deputy director of the Research and Development Bureau’s International Nuclear and Fusion Energy Affairs Division.

In 2016, Nakatsuka moved to the UK where she was as an advisor at the London Office of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). Upon returning to Japan in 2017, she became head of the International Policy Planning Division, International Program Department at JSPS. She then worked as deputy director of the Planning Office, Academic Research Grant Division within the Research Promotion Bureau at MEXT for two years.

Before joining Science Tokyo, Nakatsuka was director of the Department of Research Promotion at the University of Tsukuba from 2021 to 2022, and general manager of the Research Promotion Department at the University of Tokyo from 2022 to 2026.