 Sato spent summer 1974 through spring 1975 on sabbatical working with Dr. Niels Kaj Jerne at the Basel Institute for Immunology in Basel, Switzerland.Sato was recruited as director of The W. Alton Jones Cell Science Center, Lake Placid, New York (1983 to 1992).His vision was to build a research university similar to Rockefeller University in the peaceful setting of the Adirondack Mountains of New York.