Satoko Tanimoto, Ph.D.
Senior Research Scientist
Satoko has extensive experience working with museums and academic institutions as both a scientist and lecturer in the field. She received her Ph.D. from the University College London (UCL, Institute of Archaeology) while a research associate at the Victoria and Albert Museum and as a tutor in the Conservation Dept at the City and Guilds of London Art School. She was then an A.W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Conservation Science at the British Museum, where her major project was to conduct the technical study of Italian Renaissance drawings in collaboration with the Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe degli Uffizzi in Florence, Italy. This was immediately followed by an AHRC/ ESPRC Science and Heritage Programme Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Imperial College London in collaboration with the British Museum and the National Gallery London, exploring the application of FTIR imaging techniques on samples from museum collections. She has also worked as a tutor at the Conservation of Wall Paintings Dept, the Courtauld Institute of Art, before moving to New York in 2016. Satoko brings a wealth of academic and research experience to SAFA, and is an expert on the application of scientific methods to the study of artwork, including Raman spectroscopy and X-ray fluorescence.