Kazunori Akiyama

Kazunori (Kazu) Akiyama is a Professor and Royal Society Faraday Discovery Fellow at the Institute of Sensors, Signals and Systems (ISSS) at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK. His research lies at the intersection of astronomy, fundamental physics, and computational imaging, with a particular focus on imaging black holes at the highest angular resolutions.

 

He received his BSc in Physics from Hokkaido University and his MSc and PhD in Astronomy from the University of Tokyo, Japan, under the supervision of Mareki Honma. Before joining Heriot-Watt in March 2026, he spent more than a decade at MIT Haystack Observatory, where he served as a JSPS Overseas Research Fellow, NRAO Jansky Fellow, MIT Research Scientist, and principal investigator.

 

Akiyama is Deputy Project Scientist of the Event Horizon Telescope  Collaboration and served as its inaugural Imaging Working Group Lead, co-leading the imaging efforts that produced the first images of the black holes M87* and Sagittarius A*. Apart from co-leading the EHT imaging team, he developed the imaging software package SMILI used to create those images. He also holds leadership roles in the proposed Black Hole Explorer space mission, which aims to extend EHT imaging capabilities into space.

 

His honours include the Young Astronomer Award from the Astronomical Society of Japan (2020), the Young Scientists’ Prize from the Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (2020), 20 Under 40: Young Shapers of the Future (Science and Technology) by Encyclopedia Britannica (2021), Royal Society’s £4M Faraday Discovery Fellowship (2025), and the 2020 Breakthrough Prize for the Fundamental Physics as a co-recipient (2019).