Atsushi Urakawa was born in Fukuoka, Japan in 1976.
He obtained his BSc degree (1999) in Applied Chemistry at Kyushu University (Fukuoka, Japan) including one year stay in the USA. Afterwards, he continued his education in Chemical Engineering at the Delft University of Technology (Delft, The Netherlands) for his MSc study (2001) and further at the ETH Zurich (Zurich, Switzerland) for his PhD study (2006 with distinction).
In 2006, he undertook a position as an Oberassistent (senior scientist/lecturer) in the group of Prof. Alfons Baiker at the ETH Zurich. With his research team, he developed various in situ/operando spectroscopic techniques to understand heterogeneous catalytic processes with aid of ab initio static and dynamic calculations.
In January 2010, he joined the ICIQ as a group leader where he leads a research group with particular emphasis on the development of in situ/operando spectroscopic tools and on the rational design of heterogeneous catalytic processes potentially pivotal for solving environmental and energy-related problems by means of combined experimental-theoretical approaches.