Our CEO (Hiro Kimura, Ph.D., R.Ph.) was invited to ASDRP’s Guest Speaker Series and delivered a lecture for high school students in the San Francisco Bay Area.
*ASDRP (Aspiring Scholars Directed Research Program): a nonprofit, private research institution based in Fremont, California, that mentors highly motivated and talented high school students (primarily grades 9–12) year-round, supporting them in conducting research and presenting outcomes. (asdrp.org)
In this lecture, the talk covered the practical, real-world pathway from fundamental research to translational research and onward to drug discovery business execution, with a focus on how to navigate key career inflection points at the intersection of research and business—and what decision criteria to use when making those choices. The lecture also addressed the role of AI: while AI can serve as a powerful accelerator, outcomes are ultimately determined by what humans must own—framing good questions, making sound judgments about data, and maintaining rigor in validation and reproducibility (a perspective that becomes increasingly important as AI becomes a standard environment for the next generation).
During the session, the students also introduced their research projects as teams, leading to an active and meaningful exchange through Q&A. Particularly impressive was how clearly the students understood their own research problems and how effectively they responded to questions, staying focused on the core issues. In addition, their openness and coachability—combined with a strong tendency to translate learning into action—stood out, and the organizers noted their consistently hard-working culture. From our perspective, this research mindset and level of readiness go well beyond what is typically expected within the framework of high school education in Japan. This opportunity strongly reaffirmed the potential of the next generation, and the company will continue to contribute—globally and on an ongoing basis—to talent development and to advancing the translation of research into real-world impact.
