HIAS Bridges NEXT (AP)

Kim Honjik

Research field:Built environment and human behavior

●What are your current research interests?

Social sustainability, including health promotion, aging in place, well-being, and social participation

●What do you enjoy most about research?

When I was able to add a brick to the foundation of studies

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

Adventure for a better future/life

●What inspired you to become a researcher?

I am interested in the topic of “where we prefer to live.” As East Asian countries are facing rapid population aging, I have focused my research on the types of neighborhoods that older adults are most satisfied with.

●What are your future goals as a researcher?

I hope my research will help create living environments where people of all ages can feel happy.

Davide Luigi Totaro

Research field:Comparative Private Law

●What are your current research interests?

Contracts, Insurance, Fintech/Insurtech, Artificial Intelligence, and Data Protection

●What do you enjoy most about research?

Providing solutions and insights on practical legal issues while advancing the theoretical framework, bridging the gap between industry and academia

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

Advance human knowledge-understanding and problem-solving capability

●What inspired you to become a researcher?

The freedom to research, express yourself, and pursue knowledge, privileges that only academia can grant.

●What are your future goals as a researcher?

Furthering my knowledge and expertise in academia while engaging with private and public entities in the hope of working together toward common standards for trade and governance, especially in areas such as Artificial Intelligence.

Julia Mariko Jacoby

Research field:Early modern Japanese environmental and economic history

●What are your current research interests?

I currently research the complex natural resource networks of early modern Japanese villages and how they continued into the Meiji period.

●What do you enjoy most about research?

I love to connect with people from the past through reading sources and to connect with colleagues about research.

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

Research, for me, is an opportunity to never stop learning.

●What inspired you to become a researcher?

I’ve always been curious and loved analyzing things.

●What are your future goals as a researcher?

I want to be a researcher who brings people together internationally.

Hayato Koga

Research field:Human geography, Political ecology, Energy social science

●What are your current research interests?

Energy geography, Decentralisation of energy governance, nuclear waste management

●What do you enjoy most about research?

Learning new things

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

Producing new things

●What inspired you to become a researcher?

Among various paths, I felt that being a researcher suited me best in addressing environmental and social issues

●What are your future goals as a researcher?

I hope to contribute, even in a small way, to improving issues regarded as environmental or social problems

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.

Thomas Monnier

Research field:Urban and development economics

●What are your current research interests?

Migration, informality, climate change, structural transformation

●What do you enjoy most about research?

Interacting with many stakeholders while keeping independence and freedom

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

Getting excited about new ideas, then keeping a cool head and persevere to bring projects to an end

●What inspired you to become a researcher?

Meeting inspiring people, and a love for social sciences and humanities in general

●What are your future goals as a researcher?

Engage with policymakers and develop a truly trans-disciplinary research agenda to maximize impact

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.

Shaofeng Zheng

Research field:Social Psychology, Cultural Psychology

●What are your current research interests?

How gene and environmental factors (e.g., culture, childhood experience) independently and interactively shape individuals’ empathy and support-seeking

●What do you enjoy most about research?

Writing interesting papers

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

Solve problems with a systematic, scientific approach

●What inspired you to become a researcher?

Understanding human nature

●What are your future goals as a researcher?

Create my own theory or research field and inspire others to join me

Toshimitsu Aritake

Research field:Statictical machine learning

●What are your current research interests?

I am focusing on machine learning, particularly researching distribution shift aspects such as transfer learning and domain adaptation, and also meta-optimization, which involves learning how to optimize.

●What do you enjoy most about research?

I feel a sense of excitement when I thoroughly understand the problem at hand and come up with models or analytical methods that fit that problem well.

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

The pursuit of novelty and self-improvement.

●What inspired you to become a researcher?

Initially, I was motivated by my admiration for how my mentor and senior colleagues in the lab approached their research. Afterward, I worked at a company, but I couldn’t let go of my desire to become a researcher, so I returned to the path of research.

●What are your future goals as a researcher?

I aim to advance research on two fronts: addressing practical problems while also tackling mathematically intriguing problems.

Marco Nutta

Research field:Marketing

●What are your current research interests?

Branding, Brand coolness, consumer behavior, foodservice and lodging marketing

●What do you enjoy most about research?

Learning a new skill each time I start a project.

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

Discovering the unknown and confirming or denying assumptions

●What inspired you to become a researcher?

My mother because she is a researcher and I always wanted to be like her.

●What are your future goals as a researcher?

I would like to be well-known for brand coolness research. Additionally, my field lacks theoretical development and I would like to one day to contribute to the development of a new theory specific to hospitality and tourism.