Born and educated in Japan. After obtaining PhD in astrophysics at Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan, in 1995, I moved to Europe, working at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge in UK (1995-2005), at the Max Planck Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik in Germany (2005-2008), and at INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna in Italy (2008-2009). In 2010, I joined ICREA, to work as an ICREA Research Professor at the Institut de Ciències del Cosmos  of Universitat de Barcelona (ICCUB). My main research area is X-ray astronomy on active galaxies and cosmic black holes.

Research interests

I work in the field of observational astronomy, using X-ray observatories in space. My primary interest is in the formation and evolution of supermassive black holes powering active galaxies. These active galaxies are strong X-ray emitters, which makes X-ray observations a powerful probe of black hole activity even at great cosmological distances. I am involved in a few multi-wavelength survey projects which attempt to establish cosmic evolution of the black hole activity and its relation to the galaxy formation. Currently most active collaborations include Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey, for investigating properties of star formation and active black holes in lumimnous infrared galaxies, the XMM-Newton deep survey in the Chandra Deep Field South for the evolution of active galactic nuclei, and the SHELLQs project with the Subaru HyperSuprime Cam survey to search for the most distant quasars.