Dr. Suyehiro was the Executive Director of Research & Development at Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) from 2003 to 2009 and since 2009 has been the President and CEO of IODP (Integrated Ocean Drilling Program) Management International, Inc.

He received Dr. Sci. in Geophysics from the University of Tokyo in 1980. From then on, he worked at Tohoku University, Chiba University, and at Ocean Research Institute of the University of Tokyo chiefly engaged in marine seismology. He led and participated in many marine seismological research works studying crustal and lithospheric structures in relation to plate subduction seismicity and island arc evolution in the western Pacific area.

He was co-chief on ODP Leg 128 to emplace a digital broadband seismometer in ocean borehole in the Japan Sea in 1989. He has served as Senior Specialist for Scientific Affairs, Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, and was Treasurer and then Meetings Committee Chair for the Seismological Society of Japan. Dr. Suyehiro was Editor, Geophysical Research Letters, the publication of the American Geophysical Union, and he currently holds the position of Secretary of the Board of Governors of IODP-MI - Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Management International. He has authored many papers in the areas of subduction zone structure and dynamics, island arc structure and evolution, and seafloor and borehole sensor system developments and networking.

Dr. Suyehiro joined JAMSTEC in 1999 as Director of the Deep Sea Research Department to pursue his efforts to emplace seafloor observatories. Starting that year, 4 borehole observatories were set up in the Western Pacific forming an Ocean Hemisphere Network together with land stations. He oversees the overall research and activities at JAMSTEC focusing on predicting our future as accurately as possible as the System Earth changes, which to his mind means more observatories in the ocean.