RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences (iTHEMS) | iTHEMS

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Farewell message from Muzi Hong

Our colleague, Muzi Hong, left iTHEMS on October 11, 2026, and has joined Fermilab as a Research Associate. We all miss her and wish her the best of luck in her new endeavor. Here is a message from Muzi: <i>I had a wonderful time at iTHEMS. It was always a pleasure to discuss ideas with people from various fields and attend seminars on a wide range of topics. I enjoyed every Coffee Meeting. I also made many friends along the way. The secretaries were always kind and helpful. I would like to thank all my colleagues for creating such a friendly, welcoming, and professional environment at iTHEMS. I always look back on my time there with warmth and fond memories. I have now moved to Fermilab as a postdoc, but I will remain affiliated with iTHEMS as a visiting scientist. You are always welcome to visit me at Fermilab!</i>

2026-11-05
Reproducing Long-Term Variations in Venus's Atmospheric Superrotation

A joint research team including Takemasa Miyoshi, Team Director at the RIKEN Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences Program (iTHEMS), has successfully reproduced long-term variations in the wind speeds of Venus's atmospheric "superrotation," a phenomenon characterized by extremely fast atmospheric circulation, using the Venus atmospheric data assimilation system ALEDAS-V. By incorporating wind observation data from the cloud tops collected by the Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki into numerical simulations, the team reproduced observed wind speed variations and differences between the northern and southern hemispheres. The researchers also estimated the three-dimensional structure of Venus's atmosphere, including altitudes where direct observations are unavailable. These findings demonstrate the potential of data assimilation techniques to reveal planetary atmospheric circulation patterns from limited observational data and are expected to contribute to future Venus exploration and planetary atmospheric research. For more details, please see the related links.

2026-10-30
Daisuke S. Shimamoto, Special Postdoctoral Researcher, Selected for the 59th (FY2026) Research Grant of the Ito Science Foundation

Daisuke S. Shimamoto, Special Postdoctoral Researcher in the Division of Fundamental Mathematical Science at the RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences (iTHEMS), has been selected for funding under the 59th (FY2026) research grant program of the Ito Science Foundation. The program supports young researchers pursuing original basic research. This year, two projects each were selected in physics and biological sciences. Shimamoto’s project is titled “Degrees of Freedom and Constraints in Periodic Tangle Structures.” It focuses on structures formed by interwoven threads or interlinked rings, such as knitted fabrics and chain mail, and explores how these arrangements affect their susceptibility to damage and their shape. By combining mathematical and physical approaches, the research is expected to offer new insights into the mechanisms underlying these familiar structures. Congratulations, Daisuke!

2026-10-27
Are Supernovae Giant Cosmic Particle Accelerators? Exploring a PeVatron Candidate through Visible Light and Neutrinos

A collaborative research group including Ryo Sawada, a Special Postdoctoral Researcher at RIKEN iTHEMS, has theoretically shown that the Type Ibn supernova SN 2023uqf may act as a “PeVatron,” capable of accelerating particles to extremely high energies. By connecting the explosion environment inferred from visible-light observations with a high-energy neutrino event detected by IceCube, the study presents a new approach to investigating the origin of cosmic rays. For further details, please see the related link.

2026-10-27
Riccardo Muolo Receives the 2026 Complex Systems Society Emerging Award

Riccardo Muolo (Special Postdoctoral Researcher, Division of Fundamental Mathematical Science, RIKEN iTHEMS) has received the 2026 Emerging Award from the Complex Systems Society (CSS). The award was presented at the 2026 Conference on Complex Systems (CCS 2026), held in Binghamton, New York, USA, on October 9–16, 2026. The CSS Emerging Award recognizes promising early-career researchers who have made significant contributions to complex systems science within three years of completing their PhD. Riccardo was recognized for developing new mathematical tools to understand the complex interactions underlying collective dynamics, including synchronization, pattern formation, and self-organization, as well as for his contributions to scientific outreach and dissemination. This award highlights his contributions to the mathematical understanding of complex systems and the interdisciplinary nature of his research. Congratulations, Riccardo, on this wonderful achievement!

2026-10-23
AI and Symmetry Accelerate the Design of Sound-Absorbing Woven Materials

An international research team including Sonia Mahmoudi, Assistant Professor at the Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR), Tohoku University, and Visiting Scientist at iTHEMS's Tohoku University Collaboration Team, has developed a method that uses AI and symmetry to make the design of sound-absorbing woven materials more efficient. The researchers organized manufacturable weave patterns according to symmetry and trained an AI model on a limited set of detailed simulations, enabling rapid evaluation of many candidates. Predicted sound-absorption performance agreed with independent simulations within 5%. The team plans to test selected 3D-woven prototypes experimentally. For details, please see the related links.

2026-10-20
Helping AI Recognize Shapes through Event Cameras: Paper by Masato Taki and Colleagues Accepted at NeurIPS 2026

A paper by Masato Taki, Team Director of the AI as Science Team at RIKEN iTHEMS and Associate Professor at Rikkyo University, together with Soshun Kihara and Shunsuke Yasuki, graduates of Rikkyo University's Graduate School of Artificial Intelligence and Science, has been accepted at NeurIPS 2026, a leading international conference in AI and machine learning. The researchers used knowledge distillation to transfer what an AI model learned from event-camera data, which capture changes in brightness at individual pixels, to a model processing conventional color images. The resulting model relied more on object shapes than on color or texture and became less sensitive to color changes and fine-grained noise. For details, please see Rikkyo University's press release via the related link.

2026-10-09
Tomoki Ozawa was awarded the 30th Matsuo Foundation Hiroshi Takuma Memorial Academic Award

Tomoki Ozawa, Team Director of the Tohoku University Collaboration Team at RIKEN iTHEMS, has been awarded the 30th (FY2026) Matsuo Foundation Hiroshi Takuma Memorial Academic Award for his research on "Topological physics in AMO systems, particularly synthetic dimensions." The award ceremony will be held on December 7, 2026. The Matsuo Foundation Hiroshi Takuma Memorial Academic Award is presented annually by the Matsuo Foundation to one researcher who has achieved outstanding results in atomic and molecular physics and quantum electronics. Congratulations, Tomoki!

2026-10-08
Lingxiao Wang Receives 2026 Google TPU Builders Research Award

Lingxiao Wang, Deputy Team Director of the AI as Science Team at RIKEN iTHEMS, has received the 2026 Google TPU Builders Research Award for his research, "Physics-Driven Diffusion Samplers on TPUs." The award was granted under Google's 2026 Awards for Machine Learning Research and Education with TPUs. The Google program supports the advancement of machine learning through both foundational and applied research, as well as the design and execution of courses that feature Google TPUs. The project aims to combine physics-driven generative models with large-scale computing resources to develop efficient and scalable sampling methods for challenging problems in lattice field simulations. This support will help advance research at the intersection of generative AI, high-performance computing, and quantum field theory. Congratulations, Lingxiao!

2026-10-08
ECL Unit Leader Leo Speidel elected a 2026 AYS Fellow in Life Sciences

Leo Speidel, a RIKEN ECL Unit Leader at the RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences (iTHEMS) and RIKEN Pioneering Research Institute(PRI), has been elected as a 2026 Asian Young Scientist (AYS) Fellow in Life Sciences. AYSF is a privately funded research fellowship that aims to encourage and support young scientists in Asia to carry out creative and transformative research. The Fellowship annually selects early-career scientists in three fundamental disciplines: 1) Life Science, 2) Physical Science, and 3) Mathematics and Computer Science. Speidel’s research focuses on the development and application of new mathematical and statistical techniques to reveal human evolution, with the goal of reconstructing genome-wide genealogies across individuals and species. He was selected for this year’s AYSF in recognition of his pioneering achievements.

2026-10-05

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RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences (iTHEMS) is an international research center at RIKEN. It facilitates close collaborations among researchers from different disciplines in theoretical, mathematical and computational sciences. On April 1, 2025, iTHEMS transitioned from a program to a center. The ultimate goal of iTHEMS is to unravel the mystery of the Universe, matter, and life, as well as to solve key problems in modern society through interdisciplinary approaches.

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Director: Satoshi Iso

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Yang-Yang Tan

Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute for Physics of Intelligence, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo

Term: May 1 (Fri) 2026 - April 30 (Fri) 2027

Visiting Place: Main Research Building, RIKEN Wako Campus