Dr. Akira Sekikawa graduated from the Tohoku University School of Medicine in Sendai City, Japan, and received a doctorate degree in epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Sekikawa is an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. Dr. Sekikawa's research interests include epidemiology as it relates to cardiovascular issues, diabetes, preventive medicine, and Japanese populations.

Dr. Sekikawa has been published in the Journal of Diabetes and Its Complications, the Annals of Epidemiology, and the Journal of Human Hypertension, among many others.

He was the 2001 recipient of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute's Scientific Leadership Award, and has been a fellow of the American Heart Association's Council on Epidemiology and Prevention since 2001.