​Seiji Shirakawa graduated from Nihon University (1997) and received his Ph.D. (2004) from Kyoto University under the supervision of Professor Keiji Maruoka. He worked with Professor James L. Leighton at Columbia University (2004–2005) and Professor Shū Kobayashi at University of Tokyo (2005–2007) as a postdoctoral fellow. He was appointed as an assistant professor at Nihon University in 2007, and moved to Kyoto University as an associate professor (2009). He is currently an associate professor in Nagasaki University since 2014. He has received The Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, The Young Scientists’ Prize (2013), Incentive Award in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan (2014), and Nagase Foundation Award (2015). His research interests include supramolecular catalysis and onium salt catalysis.