Hiroaki Kitano is a Director at Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc. and a President of The Systems Biology Institute.  He is also a visiting professor of the University of Tokyo and of Keio University, Manager of Division of Systems Biology, Cancer Institute, Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, and a Founding President of The RoboCup Federation.  He received a B.A. in physics from the International Christian University, Tokyo, and a Ph.D. in computer science from Kyoto University.  Since 1988, he has been a visiting researcher at the Center for Machine Translation at Carnegie Mellon University.  Kitano received The Computers and Thought Award from the International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence in 1993, Prix Ars Electronica 2000, Japan Design Culture Award 2001, and Good Design Award 2001, as well as being an invited artist for Biennale di Venezia 2000 and Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) New York in 2001.  His research interests include AI, Robotics, and Systems Biology.