HIAS Bridges NEXT

Ryoya Yamasaki

Research field:Machine Learning, Statistics

●What are your current research interests?

Ordinal regression, Sparse modeling

●What do you enjoy most about research?

I like being able to decide what to do by myself.

● What does research mean to you?(In a nutshell)

It’s just something I like to do, but I have to be cognizant of a job 🙂

●What inspired you to become a researcher?

I got hooked on ‘PSYCHO-PASS’ and ‘Ghost in the Shell’ when I was in a high school. This led me to informatics and research.

●What are your future goals as a researcher?

I want to do research that will still be cited 100 years from now.

Jonathan Krautter

Research field:Japanese and German Economic and Business History

●What are your current research interests?

The demise and resurgence of capital controls from 1945 until today.

●What do you enjoy most about research?

Discovering new insights in archival sources.

● What does research mean to you?(In a nutshell)

Producing knowledge that helps us to navigate and interpret the social and natural world(s) we live in.

●What inspired you to become a researcher?

I did not have a particular inspiration. Rather, I wanted to continue doing archival research and immerse myself in worlds of the past.

●What are your future goals as a researcher?

My long-term goal is to contribute to theory formation in industrial policy research by employing historical and qualitative approaches, and help bridge the gap between quantitative and qualitative research.

Asako Toyama

Research field:Experimental psychology , Computational Behavioral Science

●What are your current research interests?

Decision-making, reinforcement learning models, emotion, physiological responses, computational psychiatry

●What do you enjoy most about research?

I enjoy being able to approach topics of interest in my own way while learning along the way. I also find it exciting to hear about other researchers’ work.

● What does research mean to you?(In a nutshell)

Trial and error driven by curiosity

●What inspired you to become a researcher?

I initially became interested in memory, which led me to study psychology. Over time, my research interests expanded to various other topics.

●What are your future goals as a researcher?

I aspire to be a researcher who integrates multiple perspectives—such as cognitive science, computational modeling, and psychology—to deepen our understanding of human behavior and the mind.

Batkhuyag Khongorzul

Research field:Private International Law

●What are your current research interests?

Realizing children’s right to express their opinions and be heard

●What do you enjoy most about research?

The moment when scattered knowledge and data come together to form a coherent story

● What does research mean to you?(In a nutshell)

The real value lies beyond getting lost.

●What inspired you to become a researcher?

My respected supervisor inspired me to pursue research.

●What are your future goals as a researcher?

To leave a mark on the academic world

Makoto Kadowaki

Research field:Industrial Organization, Innovation Economics

●What are your current research interests?

Economic analysis of intellectual property rights, the relationship between information disclosure and technological progress, economic effects of platforms

●What do you enjoy most about research?

I always enjoy it. (I also enjoy when I’m not doing research)

● What does research mean to you?(In a nutshell)

A meritorious deed regardless of productivity

●What inspired you to become a researcher?

I was curious whether it was something one could become simply by trying, so I gave it a shot

●What are your future goals as a researcher?

The kind whose opinion people think “Well, whether I agree or not, I should at least hear what this person has to say”

Zhongyuan Sun

Research field:Strategic Management, Organization Theory, Cultural Industries

●What are your current research interests?

the relationship between paranoid CEOs and corporate product safety

●What do you enjoy most about research?

To absorb the wisdom of those who came before us and to venture into the unknown.

● What does research mean to you?(In a nutshell)

Research is a captivating lifestyle that grants me the freedom of thought, the joy of intellectual exploration, and the opportunity to make a societal contribution through my work.

●What inspired you to become a researcher?

I have always been captivated by wisdom.

●What are your future goals as a researcher?

I aim to leverage my research to make a positive impact on society.

Etienne Makdissi

Research field:Family and Labor Economics

●What are your current research interests?

Marriage Formation and Location Choice

●What do you enjoy most about research?

Satisfying my curiosity

● What does research mean to you?(In a nutshell)

Improving our understanding of society

●What inspired you to become a researcher?

Desire to explain why society is structured as it is, and to try to find out how to improve it.

●What are your future goals as a researcher?

Better understanding of the relationship between family and socio-economic structures.

Elnura Baiaman kyzy

Research field:Mainly macroeconomics, with a focus on monetary and fiscal policy, uncertainty and, a love for Bayesian estimation

●What are your current research interests?

Currently I am working on stochastic volatility models and nonlinear filters.

●What do you enjoy most about research?

Uncovering new insights and solving both old and new puzzles

● What does research mean to you?(In a nutshell)

A long journey of exploring new ideas and solutions

●What inspired you to become a researcher?

The amazing women in science!

●What are your future goals as a researcher?

Keep exploring, keep solving, and keep enjoying my job!

PEIRAN LI

Research field:AI/Data Science

●What are your current research interests?

I’m now exploring how to use generative AI models—particularly diffusion and large language models—to simulate and understand large-scale human mobility across cities and regions. My broader interest lies in connecting data-driven modeling with real-world urban and social systems.

●What do you enjoy most about research?

I enjoy discovering unexpected patterns hidden in complex data and transforming them into interpretable insights.

● What does research mean to you?(In a nutshell)

To find things we cannot see by eyes but could be revealed by data.

●What inspired you to become a researcher?

By how data and algorithms can reveal real-wrold behavior.

●What are your future goals as a researcher?

I hope to broaden my research scope—from domain-specific spatiotemporal data analysis to more general data science research. My goal is to develop versatile methodologies that can be applied across different types of data and contribute to solving diverse real-world problems.