SESSION I: THE ROLE OF JAPAN IN ARCTIC COOPERATION

H.E. YŌKO KAMIKAWA

Yōko Kamikawa is a Japanese politician and former think-tank researcher, currently serving as the Minister of Justice since September 2020. Kamikawa is highly engaged in Arctic affairs currently also serving as the Chief Secretary of the Parliamentary League of Arctic Frontier Study. Kamikawa has previously served as Minister of State for Gender Equality and Social Affairs in the cabinets of Shinzō Abe and Yasuo Fukuda.

H.E. ÓLAFUR RAGNAR GRÍMSSON

H.E. Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson will be moderating this event. Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson served as President of Iceland for twenty years, 1996-2016; elected five times in nationwide elections. Previously, he was Minister of Finance, Member of Parliament, Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and the first Professor of Political Science at the University of Iceland. He now serves as Chairman of the Arctic Circle.

DR. ATSUSHI SUNAMI

Atsushi Sunami is the President of The Sasakawa Peace Foundation. He is also Director of the SciREX center and Executive Advisor to the President at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) and Guest Professor at the Research Organization for Nano & Life Innovation at Waseda University. He is currently serving as a member of the Basic Policy Group under the Committee on National Space Policy in the Cabinet Office, also as Chair of the Space Utilization Promotion Round-table under the Minister for Space Policy in the Cabinet Office. In addition, he is a member of the Innovation Strategy for Security and Safety at the Cabinet Office and on the Advisory Board for the Promotion of Science and Technology Diplomacy in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan and a member of the Arctic Circle Advisory Board. He holds a BSFS from Georgetown University and an MIA and PhD in Political Science from Columbia University.

SESSION II: THE FUTURE OF ARCTIC SCIENCE: THE ROLE OF JAPAN AND THE USA

H.E. LILJA ALFREÐSDÓTTIR

H.E. Lilja Alfredsdottir is Iceland‘s Minister of Education, Science and Culture and former Minister for Foreign Affairs and External Trade. Ms. Alfredsdottir is also a member of Parliament. Before her participation in politics, Ms. Alfredsdottir served as Deputy Director of the Central Bank of Iceland’s General Secretariat and International Affairs Department. Since her graduation from Columbia University, Ms. Alfredsdottir, has been a central banker, apart from temporary secondments to Iceland’s Prime Minister’s Office as a Special Liaison and previously, to the International Monetary Fund’s Nordic-Baltic Executive Office as an Advisor. Ms. Alfredsdottir holds a master’s degree in International Economic Policy from Columbia University. She holds an undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Iceland. She also studied at the University of Minnesota and Ewha University in Seoul. 

MR. KEI KOIZUMI

Mr. Kei Koizumi is the Chief of Staff for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, currently serving as Acting Director. He was previously Senior Advisor for Science Policy at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In the Obama- Biden administration, Mr. Koizumi was Assistant Director for Federal Research & Development and Senior Advisor to the National Science and Technology Council at OSTP. Before then, he was the Director of the AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, he is from Columbus, Ohio. Mr. Koizumi is a graduate of Boston University and George Washington University.

DR. LARRY HINZMAN

Dr. Hinzman is the Assistant Director of Polar Sciences in the White House Office of Science and Technology
Policy and the Executive Director of the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee. He recently
served as the Vice Chancellor for Research and as a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at
the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Hinzman served as the Director of the UAF International Arctic
Research Center from 2007 to 2015. Professor Hinzman’s primary research interests involve permafrost
hydrology. He conducted hydrological and meteorological field studies in the Alaskan Arctic
continuously for over 35 years while frequently collaborating on complementary research in the Russian
and Canadian Arctic.

DR. ATSUSHI SUNAMI