So Hirata received B.Sc. (1994) and M.Sc. (1996) in chemistry from the University of Tokyo and Ph.D. (1998) in theoretical chemistry from Institute for Molecular Science. His field of expertise is the development and application of ab initio quantum chemical and density functional methods and of quantum molecular dynamics for molecular and polymeric systems. He is a principal author or co-author of more than 50 peer-reviewed articles and a contributing author of NWCHEM, Q-CHEM, UTCHEM, POLYMER, and TCE. He was a Visiting Scholar at University of California, Berkeley (1998–1999), Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Florida (1999–2001), and Senior Research Scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (2001–2004). Since 2004, he is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at University of Florida. He was a recipient of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship for Young Scientist (1996–1999).