Prof. Takeshi KINOSHITA, graduated from the University of Tokyo of 1976, Doctor of Engineering, Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering. Emeritus Professor at the University of Tokyo.
He had served as a professor at the Institute of Industrial Science, the University of Tokyo, a specially-appointed professor in the Department of Ocean Architecture and Engineering at the Faculty of Science and Technology, Nihon University, and the 19th and 20th President of Nagasaki Institute of Applied Sciences. He also served as the first chairman of the Ocean Energy Association-Japan.
His expertise lies in fluid dynamics and kinematics related to the motion of ships and marine structures, as well as the study of ocean energy, such as offshore wind power.
He promotes the utilization of marine renewable energy, which is considered the main energy resources in the future, from the perspective of global warming and national security of energy resources.
He conducts research on the social implementation of marine energy, considering the policy issues undertaken by the government, the strategic arrangement of infrastructure and supply chains by industries, and promotion measures to catch up with front runners such as Europe.

He has authored numerous books, including “Market Outlook and Development Trends of Marine Renewable Energy” (Science & Technology)

Dr. Toshio Nakajima, president of the Waterfront Real Estate Co., Ltd. has a unique professional background as the 1st Grade Registered Architect of Japan as well as an offshore engineer. He is a member of the Japan Society of Naval Architects and Ocean Engineers and the Tokyo Society of Architects and Building Engineers. He received the M.S degree from the Univ. of Hawaii, Dept. of Ocean Engineering in 1976 and the Dr.Eng. from the Univ. of Tokyo, Dept. of Naval Architecture in 1981. Besides his academic achievements, he has practiced in a diverse professional disciplines; an architectural designer at Kiyonori Kikutake Architects & Associates from 1977 to 1978; an offshore engineer for the research & development of semi-submersible type platforms at the Sumitomo Heavy Industries from 1981 to 1992. Further, driven by his passion for innovation on unsolved offshore structural challenges, he unraveled the dynamics of mooring line using the “lumped mass method” after which it has been used widely among practitioners as one of the standard design methodologies of mooring line. Since 1993, he worked for the RIKEN as an administrative senior official for 13 years and taught at the Tokyo Metropolitan University for 10 years. In the recent years, he has been energetically working on realization of soft-landed Sustainable Water City that is selected as one of the top 100 Must-Read Articles by Springer (2016).

Dr. Stefan Huebner (Hübner) is a Senior Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute (ARI) of the National University of Singapore (NUS). He is also an Associate of the Harvard University Asia Center, where he previously was Fulbright Scholar and SSRC Transregional Research Fellow. As a historian, his current focus is on the colonization and industrialization of the ocean since the early 20th century. His monograph on the topic will be published in 2025. An edited volume on “Oceanic Japan” is coming out with University of Hawai’i Press in 2024. His recent articles address the “sustainable floating city” project in Busan, South Korea, the origins of offshore oil drilling in Asia and North America, offshore rocket launch and landing platforms, and the long-term impacts of proposals from the 1950s-1970s to urbanize Tokyo Bay and Hawai’ian waters on present environmentalist thought.
He is Co-PI of the Singapore Social Science Research Council (SSRTG Type A) project on “Linking the Digital Humanities to Biodiversity History in Singapore and Southeast Asia.” Earlier, he was History and Public Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and postdoctoral/doctoral fellow at the German Historical Institute Washington, DC and the German Institute for Japanese Studies Tokyo.

Mr. Rutger de Graaf-van Dinther is an entrepreneur and researcher with more than 15 years’ experience in climate resilient floating urban development. His mission is to provide floating city technology to hundreds of millions of people who are impacted by climate change and sea-level rise. This needs to happen during this century while achieving positive ecological and social impacts.
With his companies DeltaSync and Blue21, the first stepping stones towards this mission already have been achieved with iconic floating construction projects including the Floating Pavilion Rotterdam and Floating Ecohomes, Harnaschpolder Delft, the Netherlands. More recently, Blue21 was design and technology partner in realizing the Innozowa floating solar project in collaboration with TU Delft. Currently, Blue21 is working on upscaling and mainstreaming floating city technology from ‘proof of technology’ to ‘proof of scale’. This will establish an entirely new field of expertise called ‘maritime urbanism’ to enable the development of floating neighbourhoods and floating cities globally.
Trained as civil engineer with a MSc and PhD (both finished cum laude) of Delft University of Technology, he expanded his knowledge in various additional fields of expertise resulting in peer-reviewed scientific publications in the fields of technology, sustainability and social sciences. Rutger has been consultant to the Dutch Delta Programme, Topsector Water, City of Rotterdam and international clients including from the USA and various countries in Asia and Europe.

He has authored numerous books, including “Market Outlook and Development Trends of Marine Renewable Energy” (Science & Technology)

With his family roots in shipbuilding, architecture and engineering Dr. Koen Olthuis founded Waterstudio in 2003 as the first office 100% focused on floating architecture.

As a senior researcher Floating Cities and Delta Urbanism at the Delft University of Technology, he and his team is testing the strategies and options for The Netherlands to build on water as the next phase in the evolution of a country below sea level.

He advises governments and cities around the world on how to combat the effects of climate change and urbanisation. His signature work includes the Floating City in The Maldives, as well as floating parks, houses and theatre for canals, lakes and the open ocean.

Koen is the author of the book FLOAT! and City Apps, which highlight the possibilities for rich and poor communities and to build on water to improve the performance of cities near water.