Dr. Yohei Sato was born in 1942 in Japan. He graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1967, and received his Ph. D in Agriculture from the University of Tokyo in 1972. He is currently a Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo, President of the Japan Association of Agricultural Engineering Enterprise (JAGREE) and also Chairperson of the Board of Director of Food & Agriculture Business Innovation Organization (FABIO).He began his career as an assistant professor of the University of Tokyo in 1972. Later he moved to the Faculty of Agriculture at Utsunomiya University in 1979 and served as an associate professor. And he moved to the Institute of Socio-Economic Planning at the University of Tsukuba in 1980 and served as associate professor and full professor. In 1996, he moved back to the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Tokyo and served as a full professor until his retirement in 2004. After retirement he moved to Tokyo Agriculture University and served a full professor, and one year later he was invited as the president to the National Research Institute for Agro-environment Sciences until 2011.

Some selected awards: He won Young Scientist Award in 1972, International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (CIGR) Recognition of Outstanding Contributions in 2000, Japanese Society of Irrigation, Drainage and Rural Engineering (JSIDRE) Award in 2004, CIGR Merit Award in 2006, and International Society of Paddy and Water Environment Engineering (PAWEES) International Award in 2007, a Founding Fellow of the International Academy of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (iAABE) in 2016. He was also honored from Wuhan University, China in 1998 as an Honorary Professor, and was invited as a Guest Professor to Beijing Normal University, China in 2003.

Publications: He has conducted researches in the field of land consolidation, rural land use planning, and regional resources management and local environmental engineering. He has published more than 150 refereed papers and 32 book chapters and books. Particularly, he has made remarkable achievements on rural land use planning.

Some selected contributions to academic communities: He has also made several outstanding contributions not only to domestic academic societies such as the Rural Planning Association and JSIDRE as a President, and Japan Association for Human and Environmental Symbiosis as a Vice President but also to international academic societies such as CIGR as a Chairperson, an Executive Board member and an Honorary Vice President, PAWEES as a President and an Editor-in-Chief of the international journal of “Paddy and Water Environment”, and a Chairperson of Japan National Committee of International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID).