Mitsuo Ochi

12th President

Mitsuo Ochi is a Japanese orthopaedic surgeon and regenerative medicine researcher who has served as the 12th President of Hiroshima University since April 2015. Born on 6 August 1952 in Imabari City, Ehime Prefecture, he graduated from the School of Medicine at Hiroshima University in 1977 and earned his MD from the same university in 1984. His clinical specialty is knee surgery and ligament reconstruction. He was appointed professor and chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Shimane Medical University in 1995 and at Hiroshima University in 2002, and served as Director of Hiroshima University Hospital from 2007 to 2011. He developed a three-dimensional autologous cultured cartilage transplantation method, which in April 2013 became the first Japanese-developed regenerative medicine therapy covered by the national health insurance system. His honours include the President's Prize of the Science Council of Japan (2004), the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (2010), the Chugoku Cultural Award (2012) and an award from the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare (2014).