Chair, Professor; Ph.D., (Tohoku University); M.Arch. (Sci-Arc); M.Eng. (Tohoku University); B.S. Engineering (Tohoku University). Since 1992, when Dr. Hitoshi Abe won first prize in the Miyagi Stadium competition, he has maintained an active international design practice based in Sendai, Japan, and Los Angeles as well as a schedule of lecturing and publishing, which place him among the leaders in his field. Known for architecture that is spatially complex and structurally innovative, the work of Atelier Hitoshi Abe has been published internationally and received numerous awards in Japan and internationally, including the 2011 Japan Society for Finishing Technology Award for the F-town building, 2009 Contractworld Award for Aoba-tei, 2009 Architectural Institute of Japan Award for the K-Museum, 2009 the Architectural Institute of Japan Education Award, 2008 SIA-Getz Prize for Emergent Architecture in Asia, the 2007 World Architecture Award for M/Kanno Museum, the 2005 Good Design Award for Sasaki Office Factory for Prosthetics, the 2003 Architectural Institute of Japan Award for Reihoku Community Hall, 2003 Business Week and Architectural Record Award for Sekii Ladies Clinic, 2001 Building Contractors Society Award for Miyagi Stadium, and 1999 Yoshioka Award for Yomiuri Media Miyagi Guest House. Principal of his own firm, he worked with Coop Himmelblau in Los Angeles from 1988 -1992 before founding Atelier Hitoshi Abe in 1993 in Sendai, Japan. He recently opened a second office in Los Angeles, to work on a series of projects outside of Japan including invited competitions and an exhibition installation.  Some of his key projects located in Japan include the Aoba-tei restaurant, the Sasaki Office Factory for Prosthetics, F-town, which is an eat-and-drink building filled with bars and restaurants in Sendai, the Miyagi Stadium in Rifu, SSM/Kanno Museum in Shiogama, the 9-tsubo House "Tall" in Kanagawa, and the Reihoku Community Hall in Kumamoto.

A monograph Hitoshi Abe Flicker (TOTO) accompanied an exhibition of his work at the Gallery MA in Tokyo in 2005. He is the subject of the Phaidon Press monograph Hitoshi Abe released in 2009. Dr. Abe has a decade-long distinguished career as a leader in education, which began at the Tohoku Institute of Technology (Sendai, Japan) where he taught from 1994 to 2007. He was the Friedman Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. At Tohoku University, Dr. Abe served as Professor in charge of the Architecture and Urban Design Laboratory and Director of the Architectural Design Education Committee, where he established an international network of architectural training, offering workshops and exchange programs with several foreign universities. Dr. Abe earned his M.Arch. from SCI-ARC in Los Angeles in 1988 and his Ph.D. from Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan in 1993. In 2007, he was appointed professor and chair of the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design. In 2010, he was appointed Paul I. and Hisako Terasaki Chair in the Study of Contemporary Japan as well as Director of the UCLA Paul I. and Hisako Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies. New projects include a new departmental building for the Vienna University of Economics and Business in Vienna, Austria and a duplex, Hotlinks, for Brad Pitts' Make It Right Foundation in the lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans. In 2010, SCI-ARC featured an exhibition on the work of Atelier Hitoshi Abe entitled len-tic-u-lar-is.