Mawo Kamakura

About

Mawo Kamakura is Founding member and Deputy Director of Microsoft Research Asia – Tokyo, shaping the lab’s strategy, partnerships, and engagement in Japan.

Her work spans research strategy, strategic partnerships, real-world engagement, and research ecosystem development. She works across Microsoft Research and Japan’s academic and industrial communities to shape research opportunities, build collaborations from the ground up, and connect emerging research with meaningful real-world scenarios. This includes engaging across organizational boundaries and levels, from researchers and practitioners to institutional and executive leadership, bringing together the perspectives and relationships needed to make research collaboration possible.
She also leads Microsoft Research Accelerator Japan, developing research-driven collaborations with leading companies, universities, research institutions, and startups. A key focus is building long-term partnerships with industry that bring real-world challenges and perspectives into the research process, while strengthening connections with academia as a foundation for new research, ideas, and emerging talent.
Across these roles, she focuses on creating the relationships, opportunities, and environment that enable ambitious research to grow into meaningful real-world impact.

Mawo joined Microsoft Research in 2017. Prior to that, she was a Project Researcher at The University of Tokyo. She was selected Research Fellowship for Young Scientist (DC1) – awarded as an excellent young researcher and a visiting research student at King’s College London, UK as Excellent Young Researcher by Japanese Society for Promotion Science (JSPS).