In the 2025 academic year, three Shida Scholarship recipients made remarkable progress in their academic journey. We are very proud of their achievements!
Araki Ryoko, Ph.D., 2023 Shida Scholarship Recipient, Ph.D. Track
Dr. Araki recently earned her doctoral degree in Hydrology through a joint program at the University of California, Santa Barbara and San Diego State University. During her doctoral studies, she participated in numerous research projects, resulting five publications in her final year, several internships, and prestigious fellowships, such as Quad Fellowship and American Geophysical Union Horton Research Grant.
Leveraging the scholarly network which she established through Shida Scholarship Program and her academic journey, Dr. Araki secured a position as a tenure-track Assistant Professor at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. In this role, she will continue educational and scientific contributing to advancing secure and sustainable water infrastructure in California.
Dr. Takafumi Gotoh, Shida Scholarship Recipient, Post-doctoral research Track
While engaging his research as a postdoctoral researcher at University of Cambridge, UK, Dr. Gotoh presented at UK Association of Computation Mechanics (UKACM) 2026 in Liverpool, which is a conference growing every year. He expanded his network with scholars from around the world and had deep, meaningful scholarly conversations in his research area.
Dr. Gotoh gave a lecture titled “Recent development of a fully SPH-based hydroelastic FSI solver” as an invited guest lecturer at Loughborough University. It was a great opportunity to gain a fresh perspective from audiences who specialize in different research topics.
In his first year of his postdoctoral research at Cambridge, Dr. Gotoh published four articles in SCI journals as outcomes of collaborative research projects with Professor Dongfang Liang at the University of Cambridge, who is hosting him and with his amla mater, Kyoto University, Japan.
Yuki Akura, 2024 Shida Scholarship Recipient, Joint Research Track
Mr. Akura completed his joint research project at University of California, San Diego. Under the supervision of Professor Renkun Chen, he aimed to create a cooling system for data centers and equipment producing heats which will be a breakthrough. He presented the research at 11th US-Japan Joint Seminar on Nanoscale Transport Phenomena in June 2026.
During his stay in San Diego, he cultivated life-long friendship with other Ph.D. students all around the world. Surrounded by highly motivated and like-minded scholars, he was committed to his research and inspired to be a scholar who advances science internationally. Being awarded a prestigious JSPS Overseas Research Fellowship, he will continue his scholarly journey as a post-doctoral researcher at the same lab upon graduation from Kyoto University.
