Nobuo Suga

Nobuo Suga
Born Kobe, Japan
Residence United States
Nationality Japanese
Fields Biologist
Institutions Washington University in St Louis
Alma mater Tokyo Metropolitan University
Doctoral advisor Yatsuji Katsuki[1]
Doctoral students Jonathan Fritz, Philip Jen[1]

Nobuo Suga is a Japanese biologist, famous for his research on the neurophysiology of hearing, and echolocation in bats.[2]

Contents

Life

After achieving a bachelors degree in biology at Tokyo Metropolitan University in 1958, Nobuo studied for his doctoral thesis on the neurophysiology of hearing with Yatsuji Katsuki at the Tokyo Medical and Dental University. His early research attracted the attention of Vincent Wigglesworth of Cambridge University, a prominent insect researcher, and Donald Griffin of Harvard University, who studied bats. From there, his career took him to UCLA and UC San Diego School of Medicine, before finally arriving at Washington University. Suga became a U.S. citizen in 1993, prompted by an incident at Lambert International Airport where a customs agent couldn't recognize Suga's picture on his green card, issued in 1966.[2]

Work

Suga's work revealed much about the location and function of auditory systems in the brain. Whilst at Washington, he mapped the areas of the bat brain involved in processing doppler shift (velocity) information, and in processing distance information. Suga's work demonstrated similarities between the human visual system and bat echolocation. Recent work has focused on the plasticity of the auditory system.

Selected publications

Honors and Awards

References

External links