My name is Yasunori Sawaki (Ph.D., he/him), an assistant professor at Ritsumeikan University, Japan. I am an early-career researcher in seismology (a study of earthquakes and interior strucure of the Earth), who earned a Ph.D. (Science) from Kyoto University (in Japan) in March 2023. My current work is to estimate the detailed geometry of crustal faults and the seismological heterogeneity in crusts and subducting slabs, with the aim of advancing our understanding of seismotectonics.
Download the latest CV (last updated on 27 December 2025)
Major papers:
| Period | Place | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 24–29 May 2026 | Chiba, Japan | JpGU2026 |
Our new paper is publishded! We analyzed shear wave splitting from receiver functions in Shikoku Island, SW Japan, and along-dip variation of fast axes is clarified. Check it out!
Ruan, Yihuan, Yoshihiro Ito, and Yasunori Sawaki, (2023). Anisotropic Velocity Structure Beneath Shikoku, Japan: Insights From Receiver Function and Shear Wave Splitting Analyses Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 128, e2023JB027178. doi: 10.1029/2023JB027178
I joined the 2023 SSJ Fall Meeting held in Yokohama and made a poster presentation.
I earned Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity start-up, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Grant Number 23K19077).
I visited Tohoku University Aobayama Campus for a scientific meeting. This made me feel nostalgic.
I visited the University of Tsukuba and National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED) for scientific meetings. I made a presentation about my PhD thesis in NIED.
I made an invited speech titled “Heterogeneous seismic structure at Hyuga-nada from receiver-side Green’s functions” in the Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2023 (JpGU). We had numerous intriguing talks from world-wide young researchers in our session “Seismological Advances in the Ocean”. We enjoyed seeing each other and I believe that face-to-face communication brings scientific innovation!
I start a new research life as a postdoc in the Geological Survey of Japan (AIST) in April. My job is to participate in the STAR-E (Seismology TowArd Research innovation with data of Earthquake) project organized by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan.
I was awarded “Doctor of Philosophy in Science” by Kyoto University on March 23, 2023. The title of my PhD dissertation is “Heterogeneous seismic structure in onshore and offshore areas of the Nankai subduction zone with receiver-side responses to regional deep-focus and teleseismic earthquakes”.
In the middle of March 2023, Slow-to-Fast Earthquake Workshop was held in Taiwan and I had a poster presentation “Impedance contrast in the Nankai subduction zone”.
I finally published my homepage!
The URL is here:
https://yasuit21.github.io/en/
