Hiroyuki Kanaya was born in Yamaguchi, Japan in 1998. He started his research when he was a high school student, and after entering Kyushu University, he studied sleep evolution using Hydra. He received his B.S. in Biology from Kyushu University in 2020 as valedictorian and then moved to the University of Tokyo for his M.S./Ph.D. training, where he is a member of Dr. Hiroki R. Ueda's laboratory. He received awards, including the Yamakawa award (Kyushu University, 2017) and the Excellent student award academic field, grand prize (JASSO, 2019).