Welcome Dr. Yoko Furukawa

Dear faculty and staff,

I am pleased to share the news that Dr. Yoko Furukawa will join the UW Tacoma Office of Research as our new director. Originally from Tokyo, Japan, Yoko is an earth scientist by training and has lived and worked in Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Louisiana, Japan, Australia, and Virginia before landing in the Pacific Northwest. Her career has spanned oceanographic research, environmental and energy policy, and building international research offices and partnerships — including roles at the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Office of Naval Research, and the Naval Research Laboratory.  She earned her Ph.D. in Geosciences from the Pennsylvania State University and her B.S. in Mineral Resources Engineering from Waseda University in Japan.  

Outside of work, Yoko enjoys knitting sweaters and socks, and going on geology-themed hikes with her husband (who is a retired sedimentologist) wherever interesting rocks and geological features can be found.  

Dr. Furukawa joins us on September 8, and we look forward to welcoming her to campus. I want to thank deeply the search committee — Heather Dillon, David Reyes, José Rios, Vanessa de Veritch Woodside, Karen Urlie and its chair, Associate Vice Chancellor Cheryl Greengrove, as well as Heather Porter for logistical support — for their outstanding work on this search. I also want to thank Cheryl and the extraordinary staff of the Office of Research for holding our research operations together so gracefully for the past year and a half.  

Best, 

Andrew T. Harris, Ph.D., Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs