Biography:
Hiroaki Kitano (北野 宏明) is the President and Chief Operating Officer at Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc., Tokyo; the President at The Systems Biology Institute, Tokyo, and a Professor at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology School Corporation, Okinawa. He is considered the father of SONY (SNE)’s robot dog AIBO and recognized for his visionary innovations across multiple industries (consumer robotics, biomedicine, etc).
He received a B.A. in physics from the International Christian University, Tokyo, and a Ph.D. in computer science from Kyoto University.  His research career includes a Project Director at Kitano Symbiotic Systems Project, ERATO, Japan Science and Technology Corporation followed by a Project Director at Kitano Symbiotic Systems Project, ERATO-SORST, Japan Science and Technology Agency, a visiting professor of the University of Tokyo, and so on. He is also a visiting professor of Keio University, the head of Division of Systems Biology, Cancer Institute of the Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, a Special Professor of University of Amsterdam, an extra-ordinal Professor of Linkoping University, Sweden, and the Founding President of The RoboCup Federation.

AWARDS
He received The Computers and Thought Award from the International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence in 1993, a special award in Prix Ars Electronica 2000, Design Award 2001(Japan Inter-Design Forum), Good Design Award 2001, and Nature Award for Creative Mentoring in Science (Mid-career Award, Japan) 2009, as well as being an invited artist for Biennale di Venezia 2000 and Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) New York in 2001.