Born in South Africa in 1927, Dr. Brenner completed a Master of Science degree in Anatomy and Physiology from the University of Witwatersrand before undertaking a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) at Oxford University. He later joined the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, where he became the director of the Medical Research Council in 1979.

Dr. Brenner led a distinguished research career in the field of genetics and molecular biology. In the early 1960s, he co-discovered the existence of messenger RNA and demonstrated that the nucleotide sequence of mRNA determines the order of amino acids in proteins. For this discovery he was awarded the Lasker Award in Basic Medical Research in 1971. He not only established the roundworm (Caenorhabditis elegans) as a model organism for research in the fields of genetics, neurobiology and developmental biology, but his pioneering research on it won him the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology along with his colleagues Drs. H. Robert Horvitz and John Sulston in 2002.

Beyond research, Dr. Brenner played an instrumental role in establishing several leading international research institutions all over the world, including the Molecular Sciences Institute in California, founded in 1996, and OIST. Dr. Brenner founded and served as the President of the OIST Promotion Corporation between 2005 and 2011, setting a strong foundation on which the university has established itself as an emerging leader in graduate education and research internationally. For his commitment and efforts towards establishing OIST, Dr. Brenner was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun by the Japanese government in 2017. Prior to his retirement from OIST, Dr. Brenner made a generous donation of 5,000,000 yen to establish a scholarship fund to support tuition and research expenses of OIST graduate students.

Dr. Sydney Brenner passed away on April 5, 2019.

Lab 1

Center Building

Born in 1947 in Cape Town, South Africa, Jonathan Dorfan is a world-renowned physicist who earned his BSc in physics and applied mathematics at the University of Cape Town in 1969. Upon completing his PhD in experimental particle physics from the University of California, Irvine in 1976, Dr. Dorfan joined the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and became its director from 1999 through 2007. Under his leadership, SLAC led the development of the main instrument for NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and secured the world’s first X-ray free-electron laser. As a researcher, Prof. Dorfan’s interests encompassed experimental particle physics, the fundamental makeup of matter, accelerator design and construction, and accelerator-based cancer therapy using protons and heavy ions.

After transitioning SLAC from a single-purpose particle physics research center to a multi-program laboratory serving scientists worldwide, Dr. Dorfan carried over his experience to OIST as its inaugural president in 2010. During his tenure as OIST President and CEO, Dr. Dorfan turned the conceptual aims of OIST into reality. He oversaw the assemblage of infrastructures and equipment for state-of-the-art research and quality of life support for faculty and students. He also initiated the second phase of OIST's growth with the construction of Laboratory 4, which became operational in April 2020. Dr. Dorfan expanded the OIST faculty with an ambitious recruitment strategy, which enabled OIST to attain university accreditation by 2011. His efforts instilled an atmosphere of interdisciplinary research and education comprising of world-competitive faculty and students to the university campus, which lead to OIST being ranked 9th best academic institution in the world based on the 2019 Nature Index.

Jonathan Dorfan retired from OIST in December 2016 and is now the President Emeritus. He is also Professor and Director Emeritus of SLAC and holds honorary doctorates from the University of Cape Town, Technische Universität Dresden, the University of Maryland University College, and the Weizmann Institute of Science. In 2016, Dr. Dorfan was awarded the W.K.H. Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics for his leadership in the BABAR and Belle experiments. In 2017, he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, one of Japan’s most distinguished national decorations, for contributing to the development of Japan’s science research and education. In 2019, Dr. Dorfan became a member of the University of California Irvine School of Physical Sciences Hall of Fame.

Ever active in the science community, Dr. Dorfan's long record of affiliations from serving as an advisor, chairman, or board member includes the International Committee on Future Accelerators, the Large Synoptic Space Telescope Corporation, the Weizmann Institute in Israel, the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich, IST Austria’s ISTScholar, the US Department of Energy, the International Linear Collider Global Design Effort, and the John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science at Oxford University.

OIST School Corporation and Graduate University accredited by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology on October 24, 2011.

OIST Inauguration ceremony held on November 19, 2011.

OIST held a Welcome Ceremony for its first class of students on September 3, 2012.

The Board of Governors of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology appointed Dr. Peter Gruss — internationally recognized researcher in gene regulation and embryonic development and former President of the Max Planck Society — as the CEO and President of OIST.

OIST held its inaugural Graduation Ceremony on February 24, 2018, to celebrate the achievements of OIST’s very first graduates.

In December 2018, the OIST Innovation Square, a startup incubator with several accelerator and funding programs, was established.

Innovation Square currently comprises the Innovation Square Incubator facility and two programs focused on startups: the Innovation Square Startup Accelerator Program (i2@OIST) and the OIST-Beyond Next Ventures Innovation Hub (OBI-Hub).