Akiyoshi Wada, a pioneering biophysicist, early visionary of the Human Genome Project and one of the architects of HFSP, died on 18 October 2026. He was 97. For the HFSP community, Wada leaves a deep legacy. He was involved in the discussions that shaped the Program before it existed, joined its first generation of scientific leadership as an inaugural member of HFSPO’s Council of Scientists, and later became one of its most forceful defenders at a moment when the meaning of “frontier science” was still being worked out.
Wada understood early that the frontiers of biology would not necessarily coincide with the boundaries of biological disciplines. In a 1992 commentary published in Nature, he reaffirmed his vision of HFSP as a program where different scientific disciplines, approaches and technologies could come together to advance our understanding of life. In a 2008 talk at Gakushuin University, he reflected that “interesting problems gather where established disciplines mingle—like rich fishing grounds where warm and cold currents meet.” That idea remains embedded in HFSP’s identity. Every time researchers from different disciplines and countries come together through HFSP to tackle a biological problem that none could solve alone, they are working within a vision that Wada helped establish.