Mutsuo Iwamoto

Who is Mutsuo Iwamoto?

Dr. Mutsuo Iwamoto is president of the Society for the Techno-innovation of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (STAFF). STAFF was established in 1989 as a nongovernmental organization to promote and coordinate RD for advanced technology that has potential for techno-innovation for agriculture-related industry. The research institute under STAFF played an important role in the success of the rice genome coding project conducted by the International Rice Genome Consortium supported by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF). Prior to this, Dr. Iwamoto was president of the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) from 2003 to 2005. He had previously served as director-general of the Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Research Council (AFFRC) Secretariat under the jurisdiction of MAFF in Tokyo from 2001 to 2003; as research councilor at the AFFRC Secretariat; and as director-general of Tokai Regional Agricultural Administration from 1999 to 2001.He started his academic career at the Department of Agricultural Process Engineering in Kyushu University and obtained an M.S. and Ph.D. there. After working as a research associate there, he joined the National Food Research Institute in 1973 and worked in technology development for quality control of food and agricultural products in the postharvest process. After serving as director of food engineering in that Institute from 1989 to 1993, he moved to MAFF headquarters to become responsible for planning and management of RD programs, and then for personnel management at the AFFRC Secretariat.Dr. Iwamotos major research subjects are diversified areas related to food technology, especially in developing nondestructive measuring methods for food quality in general. As a pioneer of near-infrared spectroscopy in Japan, he made great contributions to this field, which earned him various awards, including the internationally recognized Thomas Hirschfeld Award.