is a Japanese

plant scientist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

and

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

teaching at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

as of September 2019.

Career

Torii researches

stem cell In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type o ...

maintenance and the cell-to-cell communication required to correctly pattern tissue during development, focusing on

stoma In botany, a stoma (from Greek ''στόμα'', "mouth", plural "stomata"), also called a stomate (plural "stomates"), is a pore found in the epidermis of leaves, stems, and other organs, that controls the rate of gas exchange. The pore is bor ...

tal development as a model. Her work on cell-to-cell communication has also focused on the mechanisms that determine organ size and shape. In September 2019, Torii joined the faculty of the

, where she is a professor of molecular biosciences and holds the Johnson & Johnson Centennial Chair in Plant Cell Biology. She is also an Investigator at the

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fil ...

and a Principal Investigator and Visiting Professor at the World Premier Research Initiative, Institute of Transformative Biomolecules (WPI-ITbM),

Nagoya University , abbreviated to or NU, is a Japanese national research university located in Chikusa-ku, Nagoya. It was the seventh Imperial University in Japan, one of the first five Designated National University and selected as a Top Type university of T ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Prior to joining the University of Texas at Austin, Torii was the Endowed Distinguished Professor of Biology at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

Early life

Torii was born in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, Japan in 1965. She completed her B.S. (1987) and M.S. (1989) degrees in Biochemistry and Biophysics at the Institute of Biological Sciences at

University of Tsukuba is a public university, public research university located in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, Ibaraki, Japan. It is a top 10 Designated National University, and was ranked Type A by the Japanese government as part of the Top Global University Pro ...

, Japan. She also obtained a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

(1993) from the

, researching

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

development in

carrot The carrot ('' Daucus carota'' subsp. ''sativus'') is a root vegetable, typically orange in color, though purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the wild carrot, ''Daucus carota'', nat ...

Positions

* Professor, Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Texas at Austin . 2019– * Oversea Principal Investigator and Visiting Professor, Institute of Transformative Biomolecules,

, Japan 2013– * Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute 2011– * Endowed Distinguished Professor of Biology, University of Washington 2011–2019 * Professor, Department of Biology, University of Washington 2009– * PRESTO Researcher, Japan Science and Technology Agency 2008–2012 * Affiliate Faculty, University of Washington Institute of Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine 2006– * Associate Professor, Department of Biology, University of Washington 2005–2009 * Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, University of Washington 2002–2005

Awards and honors

* 2008 – JSPS prize for 'Mechanisms of Stomatal Patterning and Differentiation in Plants' * 2012 – Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) *2015 –

Saruhashi Prize The Saruhashi Prize (猿橋賞) is an annual prize awarded to a Japanese woman researcher in the natural sciences. The prize recognises accomplishments in research as well as the mentoring of other women scientists. Japanese geochemist Katsuko Sar ...

*2021 –

Asahi Prize The , established in 1929, is an award presented by the Japanese newspaper ''Asahi Shimbun'' and Asahi Shimbun Foundation to honor individuals and groups that have made outstanding accomplishments in the fields of arts and academics and have greatl ...

Publications

* * * * * * * * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Torii, Keiko 20th-century Japanese botanists Living people University of Texas at Austin faculty University of Washington faculty Women botanists Academics from Tokyo Japanese emigrants to the United States 1965 births University of Tsukuba alumni 21st-century Japanese botanists