Sensei Hidetaka Abe is the Head Instructor of the UC Berkeley Karate Club. He holds a 7th degree black belt in karate and a 2nd degree black belt in Judo.
Sensei has been studying martial arts since age 13. He trained at Meiji University in Tokyo, where he studied under Master Ohtsuka, the founder of the Wado style of Karate.
After graduating Meiji University in 1967, he coached the karate club at Meiji. Thereafter, he came to UC Berkeley, where he began teaching the UC Berkeley Karate Club, which he continues to do so today.
“Try harder more. You’ll grow and get better”.
Kirk Hewett is the Assistant Head Instructor of the UC Berkeley Karate Club. He holds a 3rd degree black belt in Wado Ryu, and a 2nd degree black belt in Wado Kai. He has practiced Karate for over 50 years and was one of the top participants in the 1976 Wado Kai All World Championships in Japan, where his team made it to the quarter finals in both kumite and Kata – the first US team to do so.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a Master’s degree in Clinical Counseling and Family Psychology, and has been a Licensed Marriage Family Therapist (MFT) and has had private clinical practice in Berkeley for over 30 years.
“Karate is demanding – if you practice hard, you’ll find that it effects the rest of your life in very positive ways”.
Dr. Kasra Nowrouzi is an instructor at the UC Berkeley Karate Club. He started karate practice with the Shotokan style of karate in 1998, and practiced various other martial arts before coming back to karate and joining the UC Berkeley Karate Club in 2015.
Dr. Nowrouzi has been at UC Berkeley since 2005, where he did his undergraduate and PhD work in a combination of EECS, Math, and Physics. He is currently a Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) where he leads teams of researchers engaged in research and development in Quantum Information Science and Technology.
Eugene Malikin is an instructor at the UC Berkeley Karate Club, and holds a 3rd degree black belt in Wado Kai. Without any previous marital arts experience, he started training karate in 1997 under Sensei Abe, and has been with the UC Berkeley Karate Club ever since.
He is a UC Berkeley alum in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and is a software engineer in the Bay Area.
Laura Lowman is an instructor at the UC Berkeley Karate Club, and currently holds a 2nd degree black belt in Wado Kai. She joined the UC Berkeley Karate Club in 2012, and began her training in Wado Kai Karate under Sensei Hidetaka Abe.
Outside of the karate club, Laura is a freelance grant writer and co-owner of First Principles Lifestyle Interventions, a small business which focuses on improving healthspan through strength training, nutrition, and other wellness practices that counteract the disorders of modern habits.
Mark St. Angelo is an instructor at the UC Berkeley Karate Club, and currently holds a 3rd degree black belt in Wado Kai and Wado Ryu. He first joined the Cal Karate Club in 1974. He became in instructor in 1981, and in 1984 served as the Captain of the UC Berkeley Karate team who competed at the 1984 Wado-Ryu World Championship tournament in Tokyo, Japan.
Mark is currently retired, after a career as a lawyer in private practice, with the US Department of Justice, and as the founder of the Legal Department for the Morongo Band of Mission Indians. He is a UC Berkeley alum, both undergraduate and from the Berkeley School of Law.
