Takato Imaizumi is an Overseas Fellow and a Professor at the Department of Biology at the University of Washington, USA. During his stay at Churchill College in Cambridge, Takato works with Professor Alex Webb at the Department of Plant Sciences on chronobiology projects. His general research interest is studying the responses of organisms to surrounding environments, mainly seasonal sensing mechanisms in plants. Takato has contributed immensely to our understanding of how plants know when to flower at appropriate seasons. Controlling seasonal flowering timing has been one of the key economic traits for increasing the yields of plants during crop domestication and has also been critical for plant adaptation to new climates.

Takato received PhD from the Tokyo Metropolitan University in 2001 and carried out postdoctoral training in chronobiology under Dr. Steve A. Kay at the Scripps Research Institute, USA. Takato has been a faculty member at the University of Washington since 2008.