Motoaki Seki graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture, Kyoto University in 1988. He obtained his Ph.D. in science from Hiroshima University in 1994. He continued the study until March 1995 as a Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). In April 1995, he joined Laboratory of Plant Molecular Biology, RIKEN Tsukuba Institute and has studied plant functional genomics and molecular responses to abiotic stresses in plants. In 1999, he also became Senior Scientist of Plant Mutation Exploration Team, Plant Functional Genomics Research Group, RIKEN Genomic Sciences Center and has performed Arabidopsis functional genomics using full-length cDNAs and whole-genome transcriptome analyses under drought, cold and high-salinity stress conditions. In November 2006, he was appointed to be Team Leader of Plant Genomic Network Research Team, RIKEN Plant Science Center. In April 2008, he was appointed to be Guest Professor of Kihara Institute for Biological Research, Yokohama City University. In April 2012, he was appointed to be Visiting Professor of Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Science (VAAS), Vietnam. In April 2013, he was appointed to be Visiting Professor of Mahidol University, Thailand. In April 2013, he was appointed to be Team Leader of Plant Genomic Network Research Team, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science.