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Shokei Watanabe is a leading figure in the development of high-throughput automation for structural biology, particularly at the Photon Factory (PF) in Japan. His research focuses on advancing robotic systems for macromolecular crystallography, enabling faster and more reliable data collection at synchrotron beamlines. Watanabe’s most significant contribution is the design and implementation of the PAM (PF Automated Mounting) system, a sample-exchange robot that efficiently swaps cryo-cooled protein crystals within experimental hutches. This innovation, detailed in his most-cited paper (34 citations), was inspired by the SAM system at Stanford and drastically reduced manual intervention, accelerating the pace of structural determination. He further refined these tools by developing the PAM/SPACE reversible cassettes and fully automated data collection protocols, which allow for remote, high-throughput operation. His work has been instrumental in transforming the Photon Factory into a hub for efficient, user-friendly crystallography, enabling researchers worldwide to solve protein structures with unprecedented speed. Watanabe’s achievements underscore his pivotal role in bridging robotics and synchrotron science, making him a key contributor to modern structural biology infrastructure.