Elix is made up of a diverse group of members, both in expertise and culture. Our AI engineers and researchers come from more than 10 countries, and hold PhDs in chemistry, biology, physics, engineering, and other fields. The official language of the company is English, creating an environment where talented members from all over the world can come together to collaborate and achieve high quality results as a team. In addition, we have several members engaged as medicinal chemist consultants, recruiters, and our public relations team.
Shinya Yuki
Co-Founder & CEO
CEO and co-founder of Elix. Born in Yamagata, Japan. During graduate school, engaged in research on astrophysics through simulations using supercomputers. Joined DeNA as a software engineer. Later, led a multinational team of software engineers at a startup in Singapore. Founded Elix in 2016. Holds a Ph.D. in Science.
Tatsuya Okubo
Co-Founder & COO
Tatsuya majored in electrical and electronics engineering at National College of Technology (Kosen), and got a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from University of Tsukuba. He did an internship at a startup in Singapore. After graduation, he co-founded Elix in 2016. Lifelong learner. He wants to be immortal.
Saki Ito
Operating Officer & Corporate Planning Director
After graduating from Waseda University, Saki worked as a strategic planner at LIFULL Co., Ltd., and joined Creww Inc. in 2015. Having experienced the operations of accelerator programs and the launches of several new businesses, she joined Elix in 2018 and is now responsible for corporate planning, recruitment, finance, accounting, legal and public relations.
Casey Galvin
Project Leader & Research Engineer
Casey received a Ph.D. from North Carolina State University and a Bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University, both in Chemical Engineering. Prior to joining Elix, he developed medical diagnostic platforms as a Research Manager at Sysmex Corporation. Casey first came to Japan as a post-doctoral scholar at the OIST. He has published 12 peer-reviewed journal articles and a book chapter in the fields of polymer chemistry, materials science and microfluidics.
Cyrille Froehlich
Full Stack Engineer
After a Master’s degree in software engineering at the University of Marne-la-Vallee in France, he worked for over 19 years as a software developer / technical consultant, solving problems on a broad range of systems, from low latency trading engine to grid computing or embedded devices. As a long time user of Debian, he often does system and network maintenance too, bordering on DevOps. On his free time, he likes roller blading, playing Factorio or a low-tech game of Go. Hand ground beans / V60 pour-over coffee maniac. Now living in Kobe, he joined Elix on May 2021.
David Jimenez
Research Engineer
After completing his Bachelor in Physics from Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia, he obtained a Master in Artificial Intelligence from KU Leuven in Belgium. Prior to joining Elix, he worked two years in Tokyo as a Machine Learning Engineer in the automotive industry, focusing in Computer Vision, and non-classical behavior and planning algorithms. Here he helped develop and deploy new algorithms in vehicles and authored a patent in computer vision. Has a strong passion for researching new technologies.
Haris Hasić
Research Engineer
Haris received his Bachelor and Masters degree in Computer Science from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. After working as a full-time Teaching Assistant at the University of Sarajevo and a part-time AI Researcher for a year, he continued to pursue a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, through the Japanese Government MEXT scholarship. He has gained experience in working with relational database systems, web and mobile applications, and machine learning systems in logistics before joining Elix in September 2020.
Joshua Owoyemi
Research Engineer
After completing both Bachelor and Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Federal Universities in Nigeria, Joshua continued to pursue and earn a Ph.D. in System Information Science from Tohoku University, Japan, through the Japanese Government MEXT scholarship. He has gained industry experience and developed deep learning solutions for perception in consumer electronics, and autonomous vehicles before joining Elix in June 2020.
Jun Jin Choong
Research Engineer
Majoring in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, prior to joining Elix, Jun Jin obtained his Ph.D. and Master’s degree from Tokyo Institute of Technology. Before that, he received his Bachelor in Computer Science degree from RMIT University, Melbourne. Passionate about research and development on machine learning, Jun Jin has spent his free time working with various technology companies throughout his studies. As a Malaysian, he enjoys the cultural diversity and uniqueness of both Elix and Japan.
Loïc Beheshti
Research Engineer
Loïc received his Master’s degree from ESIEA in France majoring in Computer Science where he received a scholarship. During his master, he carried out machine learning related research at ESIEA CVO laboratory, he also did internships at Fujitsu Laboratories in both Tokyo and London offices.
He then worked as a researcher for 2 years at Fujitsu Laboratories of Europe in London as an AI researcher prior to joining Elix in 2021.
Masakazu Atobe
Medicinal Chemist
He received Ph.D. from Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Science and has been engaged in drug discovery research at a pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
In May 2022, he was awarded the title of Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC). His contribution led to the publication of 22 academic papers, with 12 of them being corresponding author and 8 patents.
His expertise includes compound optimization, library design, and conducting protein physicochemical assays.
Nazim Medzhidov
Research Engineer
On his journey from Kyrgyzstan to Japan, Nazim spent 6 years in Istanbul, obtaining his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Molecular Biology from Fatih University. He then earned a Ph.D. degree in Immunology from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU). Prior to joining Elix in April 2020, Nazim worked as a research fellow at TMDU.
Romeo Cozac
Lead Research Engineer
Double majored in Computer Science and Psychology and furthered his studies with a graduate course in Mathematics, Romeo has been a professional software engineer for the past 7 years before joining Elix in February 2019.
Sonomi Hato
Business Development
After working in the administration department of an electronics manufacturing company and in the sales department for Recruit Co., Ltd., she obtained a master’s degree (MBA) from the Graduate School of Business Administration, Keio University. After graduation, she has experienced business development at two university-based healthcare startups before joining Elix in March 2022.
Takahiro Inoue
Research Engineer
Takahiro majored in mathematical engineering at Kyoto University and then began a master’s program at the Department of Chemical Systems Engineering, the University of Tokyo. He conducted studies on chemoinformatics and was conferred a Ph.D. in Engineering. He joined Elix in April 2022. He has co-authored a book on deep learning methods in chemistry.
Takayuki Kato
Project Leader
Takayuki got a bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Tokyo and a master’s degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Imperial College London. He started his career at EY-Parthenon Japan as an M&A consultant involving with project management, cross-border PMI, strategy planning, and valuation. He moved to PKSHA (a listed AI start-up in Japan) to create a new venture capital with a focus on AI arena as a founding member and investment committee. He then became an independent advisor to manage AI-related projects including AI pharma and AI robotics.
Thomas Auzard
Research Engineer
After studying signal processing and machine learning two years at Ecole Centrale de Nantes, Thomas did a research’s program at Keio University, in which he graduated with a master’s thesis on sleep pathology detection using convolutional neural network and sleeping heart rate. Enjoys good food and classical music.
Vincent Richard
Research Engineer
After finishing double degree curriculum at ESTIA, an Engineer school in France and Crandfield University, Vincent took a Post-Master’s Degree in Machine Learning at Télécom Paris. After his internship in a medical start up in fracture detection in Paris, he joined Elix in April 2021. Enjoys both climbing and old movies.
