Keita Funakawa

About Keita Funakawa

Keita\'s passion lies at the intersection of technology, media, and science. He graduated from UC San Diego with a B.S. in Management Science (Quantitative Economics) and a minor in Visual Arts Digital Media. He co-founded Nanome in 2015 and now leads company operations. Nanome enables expert scientists, students, and hobbyists to design and simulate molecules in Virtual Reality. Nanome is the next step in computational/medicinal chemistry, structural biology, and beyond-As the lead programmer for his high school robotics team, he led his team to two time (2009,2010) state championships at VEX robotics competitions. As an award-winning filmmaker, his films won the 2014 HIFF (Hawaii International Film Festival) student showcase and was named San Diego Surf Film Festival\'s Emerging Filmmaker. At UCSD, he met Steve McCloskey and was as inspired to create Nanome. As the Cofounder and Chief Operations Officer at Nanome, he developed prototypes with Steve back in 2015/2016 and leads company operations. He helped Nanome co-author a scientific paper with GNF Novartis that was published in the Journal of Molecular Graphics and Modeling. Read the paper of all Publications and Citations of Nanome: https://nanome.ai/publications-More about me:Born to a Japanese father and American mother, I grew up in both Japan and the U.S, giving me a multicultural perspective that has shaped my approach to innovation.My passion for emerging technologies began in 2013 when I discovered cryptocurrencies and blockchain, inspiring me to pivot from Computer Science to Quantitative Economics. Around the same time, I encountered VR while serving as Assistant Curator for the UC San Diego Film Festival. After experiencing early technologies like Google Cardboard and HTC Vive, I realized Spatial Computing (XR) and its transformative potential and decided to dedicate myself to this field.In 2015, I co-founded Nanome, a company at the forefront of using VR to accelerate scientific discovery. Collaborating with Structural Biologists, Medicinal Chemists, and Protein Engineers has given me a deep appreciation for in silico drug discovery and the challenges researchers face. I am passionate about using VR to revolutionize workflows and unlock new possibilities for scientific innovation.I thrive on working at the intersection of technology and science, and I’m always looking for opportunities to push boundaries and make meaningful impacts.

Experience

1. COO

   Nanome

   Aug 2016 — Present · San Diego, CA, US

   Merged with nanoVR in August 2016

Education

• Mid-Pacific

  High School

  2006 — 2012

• UC San Diego

  Bachelor’s Degree, B.S. Management Science (Quantitative Economics), Minor in Visual Arts Media (Digital/Film Prod.)

  2012 — 2016

Skills

• Microsoft Office
• Cinema 4d
• Cryptocurrency
• Business Management
• Virtual Reality
• Digital Photography
• Java
• Film
• Lightroom
• Final Cut Pro
• 3d Graphics
• Photography
• Operations Management
• Film Production
• Social Media
• Camera
• Bitcoin
• Color Grading
• Adobe Creative Suite
• Compositing
• Video Editing
• Unity
• Premiere
• Public Speaking
• Television
• C#
• After Effects
• Motion Graphics
• Photoshop