Ayako Fukui, Ph.D.

Ayako Fukui is Program Officer for Strategic Program Initiatives at the John Templeton Foundation, where she is primarily responsible for managing the full life cycle of the grant process as well as contributing to developing new strategic programs for the Foundation on a global scale. Before assuming the current responsibility, Dr. Fukui successfully managed a large number of grants in the Foundation’s Department of Mathematical and Physical Sciences for two years, where she also helped develop new grant initiatives with the world’s leading scholars, research groups, and institutions. Before joining the Foundation, Dr. Fukui held a research fellowship at Bryn Mawr College where she earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Mathematics, and A.B. in Mathematics with honors and minor in Economics.

She enjoys supporting creative minds and developing multi-faceted initiatives that explore uncharted territories and foster trans-disciplinary collaboration, pushing existing boundaries and creating new research frontiers. She is particularly interested in cultivating the next generation of Big Question thinkers, bridging different cultures, and providing strategic support to scholars in foundational areas of scientific research.