Masafusa Onoue

I am an Assistant Professor / Lecturer at the Waseda Institute for Advanced Study (WIAS). My main research interests as an observational astronomer are the formation and early growth of supermassive black holes, which reside in the centers of galaxies. My research expertise is observations of high-redshift quasars based on ground-based and space-based telescopes. Since my PhD years at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), I have been involved in a wide-field survey of the Subaru telescope (HSC-SSP). Since 2022, I use James Webb Space Telescope to characterize the representative population of BHs and their host galaxies at z=6, as well as to discover new active BHs. I am also involved in next-generation large projects, especially Euclid, Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS), and 30m-class telescopes.

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I was born and raised in Yokohama, Japan. I was awarded my B.S. degree from the University of Tokyo in March 2013 and my Ph.D. degree from the Graduate Studies of Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI) in March 2018 under the supervision of Dr. N.Kashikawa (NAOJ/Univ. of Tokyo). I did my postdoc years in MPIA Heidelberg (2018 - 2021), Peking University (2021 - 2023), Kavli IPMU (2023 - 2025). Since Apr 2025, I have started my Assistant Professor (fixed term) position in WIAS.

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Aside from astronomy, I like to go outside in my private times, especially in the winter season to enjoy skiing. My favorite snow mountains in Japan are Shigakogen (志賀高原) in Nagano, and Ishiuchi Maruyama (石打丸山) in Niigata. In Europe. I have been to St. Anton am Arlberg, Adelboden, and Kitzbuehel so far.