The SCCIJ, in collaboration with the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA) and with the support of the Embassy of Switzerland in Japan, is pleased to invite members and guests to a special conversation on the technologies that could reshape business and society over the next 5, 10 and 25 years. Bringing together leading voices from Switzerland, Japan and the international scientific community, the event will explore three rapidly evolving fields – Quantum Technologies, Sleep and Aging Research, and Personalized Health – and ask a practical question: how can businesses anticipate disruption rather than simply react to it?
Scientific breakthroughs are accelerating, but their impact rarely arrives overnight. Understanding what may be coming next – and when – is becoming increasingly important for business leaders navigating investment decisions, new markets, technological transformation and long-term strategy. This special SCCIJ event brings that future into focus.
In collaboration with GESDA, the Geneva-based organization working at the intersection of science, diplomacy and society, the event will draw on the thinking behind its Science Breakthrough Radar, which anticipates scientific and technological developments across more than 40 emerging fields over 5-, 10- and 25-year horizons.
Rather than focusing on technologies already dominating today’s headlines, the conversation will look ahead at three areas with the potential to create significant disruption: Quantum Technologies, Longevity and Personalized Health.
The discussion will open with Prof. Dr. Michael Hengartner, President of the ETH Board and Chair of GESDA’s Academic Forum, setting the scene for why anticipating scientific breakthroughs matters for business and society.
Three internationally recognized experts will then provide short perspectives on their respective fields:
• Quantum Technologies: Dr. Alessandro Curioni, IBM Fellow, Vice President of IBM Europe & Africa and Director of the IBM Research Lab in Zurich
• Sleep and Aging Research: Prof. Dr. Hiroki Ueda, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo
• Personalized Health: Prof. Dr. Emmanouil Dermitzakis, President, Qatar Precision Health Institute (QPHI)
Where could these technologies be in 5, 10 or 25 years? Which developments should businesses already be watching? And how can leaders prepare for breakthroughs whose full impact may still be years away?
The event is supported by the Embassy of Switzerland in Japan. Swiss wine served during the lunch will be generously sponsored by the Embassy of Switzerland in Japan.
Join us for a forward-looking Swiss-Japanese conversation designed not simply to discuss the future, but to help anticipate it.
| Date: | Wednesday, October 7, 2026 |
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| Schedule: | 12:00 – 14:00 (D.O.: 11:45) |
| Venue: | Grand Hyatt Tokyo, @Residence Anise (27F) 6-10-3 Roppongi, Minato City, Tokyo 106-0032 (MAP) |
| Fee: | • Members: JPY 6,500 or 1 SCCIJ voucher 2026 • Non-members: JPY 9,600 |
| Registration: |  *Deadline: October 2, 2026, 12:00 JST.* *Until September 17, registration is prioritized for SCCIJ members. After this date, seats will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.* *No-shows and cancellations after the deadline will be fully charged.* *Please inform us in advance of any dietary restrictions.* |
| Concept: | • This event consists of a 3-course lunch followed by presentations and a moderated, interactive panel discussion with three experts. • Participants are typically members of the Swiss-Japanese business community, but non-members are also welcome to join. Seats are not attributed (free seating). • Dress code is business / business casual. |
| Disclaimer: | • The SCCIJ may film and take photographs of this event. If you participate, please be noted that these pictures and videos may be used in various media, such as the SCCIJ website, SCCIJ social networking sites, and SCCIJ promotional materials. If you do not want to appear on these pictures and/or videos, kindly notify the SCCIJ staff at the event. • The views expressed by the speaker(s) do not reflect those of the SCCIJ as an organization. |
| Inquiries: | By e-mail to info@sccij.jp |
Biography of the Speakers
Prof. Dr. Michael O. Hengartner is President of the ETH Board and has been a member of the GESDA Board since 2022. He previously served as Rector of the University of Zurich (UZH) from 2014 to 2020 and as President of swissuniversities from 2016 to 2020. A Swiss-Canadian molecular biologist, Prof. Hengartner grew up in Quebec City and studied biochemistry at Université Laval. He obtained his doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994, conducting research in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate H. Robert Horvitz. After heading a research group at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the United States, he joined UZH in 2001 as Professor at the Institute of Molecular Biology and later served as Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. His research on the molecular basis of apoptosis has earned him numerous distinctions, including the Swiss National Latsis Prize in 2006 and an honorary doctorate from Sorbonne University in 2016. He also holds an Executive MBA from IMD Lausanne.
Dr. Alessandro Curioni is an IBM Fellow, Vice President of IBM Research Europe & Africa, and Director of the IBM Research Lab in Zurich, where he leads IBM’s corporate research activities in Europe and global research strategies in Algorithms and Applications. An internationally recognized expert in high-performance computing and computational science, Dr. Curioni’s work has contributed to solving complex scientific and technological challenges across healthcare, aerospace, consumer goods and electronics. He was part of the teams awarded the prestigious Gordon Bell Prize in both 2013 and 2015. His current research focuses on accelerating scientific discovery through artificial intelligence, quantum computing and hybrid cloud technologies. Dr. Curioni earned his undergraduate degree and PhD in Theoretical Chemistry from Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa and joined IBM Research Zurich after first arriving as a PhD student in 1993. He has since held several research and leadership positions within IBM and is a member of the Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences.
Prof. Dr. Hiroki Ueda is Professor at the Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, and Team Leader at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR). He also holds academic appointments at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, as well as Osaka and Tokushima Universities. Prof. Ueda graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at The University of Tokyo in 2000 and obtained his PhD from the same university in 2004. He was appointed Team Leader at RIKEN in 2003 and became a full professor at The University of Tokyo in 2013. His research has produced important discoveries in sleep biology, including the identification of the sleep-promoting kinases CaMKIIα and CaMKIIβ and the essential role of muscarinic receptors M1 and M3 in REM sleep. He has also developed innovative research technologies, including the CUBIC whole-body and whole-brain clearing and imaging platform, as well as next-generation genetic methods such as Triple-CRISPR and ES-mice for rapid production and analysis of genetically modified mice.
Prof. Dr. Emmanouil (Manolis) Dermitzakis is President of the Qatar Precision Health Institute (QPHI), where he leads Qatar’s national efforts to translate genomics, population data and advanced analytics into precision health research and healthcare. He is also Co-Founder and CEO of Antithesis Therapeutics. Before joining QPHI, Prof. Dermitzakis held senior positions across academia and industry, including Vice President and Head of Computational Biology at GSK, Professor of Genetics at the University of Geneva and founding Director of the Health 2030 Genome Center. Earlier in his career, he was a Senior Investigator at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge. His research focuses on the genetic regulation of human traits, functional genomics and population variation. He was elected to EMBO in 2014, received the American Society of Human Genetics Curt Stern Award in 2021 and has been repeatedly recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher. He earned his BSc and MSc from the University of Crete and his PhD from Pennsylvania State University.
