Speakers

Akimasa Sumi

President
National Institute for Environmental Studies
Japan

Prof. Akimasa Sumi is the President of the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan since April 2013. He obtained his Bachelor, Master, and Doctoral Degrees from the University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan in 1971, 1973, and 1985, respectively. His research interests include numerical weather prediction, monsoon dynamics, tropical meteorology, climate dynamics including ENSO and global warming simulation. He started his career at Japan Meteorological Agency in 1973 and assumed various positions since then. He also worked as Research Associate in the Department of Meteorology in University of Hawaii during 1979-1981. He joined the UTokyo in 1985 as Associate Professor and was promoted to be a Full Professor in 1991. Prof. Sumi was a Director of Center for Climate System Research of UTokyo between 1994 and 2004; and was an Executive Director of TIGS between 2005 and 2012. He assumed the position as Vice President at NIES from October 2012 to March 2013. Prof. Sumi received Yamamoto Award by Japan Meteorological Society in 1983 and Fujiwara Award by Japan Meteorological Society in 1995.

Bindu N. Lohani

Former Vice-President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development
Asian Development Bank

Dr. Bindu Lohani is currently the Head of Global Climate Change Practice, Centennial Group, USA; Distinguished Fellow, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Japan; and Chief Advisor, K-Water and Founding Member; Asian Water Council, Korea. He was Ranking Vice-President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development until 30 June 2015. He was responsible for the ADB's Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department (Office of the Chief Economist), Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department, and Office of Information Systems and Technology. Before the above position, Dr. Lohani was Vice-President (Finance and Administration) of ADB. He also served as Chair of Investment Committee of the Pension Fund (more than $2 billion); Chair of Asset Liability Management Committee; and Chair of Crisis Management Committee. In his almost 30 years in ADB, he has held several positions, including Director-General and Chief Compliance Officer of the Regional and Sustainable Development Department and Special Advisor to the President on Clean Energy, Climate Change and Environment. Before joining ADB, he worked for the Government of Nepal and was Division Chairman of the Environmental Engineering Program at the Asian Institute of Technology. Dr. Lohani holds a Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering, a Masters in Civil Engineering and Doctoral degree in Environmental Engineering.

C. Visvanathan

Professor
Asian Institute of Technology

Chettiyappan Visvanathan is a Professor at the School of Environment, Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology (AIT). He has a Ph.D. (Chemical /Environmental Engineering) from Institute National Polytechnique, Toulouse, France. His teaching and (application and policy) research covers a broader range of issues in the field of solid waste and wastewater treatment, addressing the overall sustainability dimension. Some of the specific research interests include; sustainable solid waste disposal and holistic waste management, and 3R- waste, reduce, reuse and recycle (3R), landfill pre-treatment technologies, methane oxidation and greenhouse gas emission related to landfill designs, Sustainable Consumption and Production, Cleaner Production and Industrial Environmental Management, and Membrane technologies for water and wastewater treatment. He has published more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed international journals. With more than 25 years of experience in teaching environmental engineering and management related courses at graduate level at AIT, he is continually involved in designing, developing and delivering the academic curriculum on new and emerging topics in solid waste and wastewater sector. Besides academic teaching, he also undertakes consultancy projects with the United Nations and other international organizations. He has also worked as Project Engineer- Asia Division at the International Training Center for Water Resources Management, Sophia Antipolis, France, and as a short term consultant to UNEP Industry and Environment Office, Paris, France. For further details visit: http://www.faculty.ait.ac.th/visu/

Chayathorn Thanawattanadamrong

Technical Officer
Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organization

Miss Chayathorn Thanawattanadamrong is currently working at Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organization (Public organization) as a Technical Expert. She obtained her Master Degree on Environmental Science from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. She was member of curriculum development team of Climate Change International Technical and Training Center (CITC) on “Climate change management for sustainable development” curriculum and the manager and organizer of CITC Training workshop exhibition and conference.

Geetha Mohan

Assistant Professor
The University of Tokyo

Dr. Geetha Mohan holds his Master's in Quantitative Economics, M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Economics from Andhra University, India. Before joining the Integrated Research System for Sustainable Science (IR3S), he worked in various international and national institutes/organizations, such as Visiting Scientist in one of the CGIAR institutes International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), India; UNU-JSPS Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UNU-ISP and IR3S, Tokyo; Research Analyst in one of the India's premier economic research institutions, National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), India; Research Investigator in Agro-Economic Research Centre (AERC), Andhra University, Ministry of Agriculture, India; Field Supervisor in Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), India; and Research Investigator (field) with part of Centre for Development Research, Germany. Dr. Geetha major research interests are agricultural economics, economics of climate change, impact evaluation, adaptation strategies, environmental impacts, econometrics, quantitative and qualitative methods, rural development and crop simulation models.

Hideo Harasawa

Vice President
National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan

Dr. Hideo Harasawa is the Vice President of the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan since 2013. He obtained his Bachelor and Master Degrees from the University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan in 1976 and 1978, respectively. He completed his Ph.D. from the Kyoto University, Japan in 1985. His research areas include global warming impacts and adaptation, environmental engineering, IPCC WG2 TAR (Ch 11 Asia), CLA and AR4 (Ch 10 Asia) CLA. He joined NIES as Researcher in 1978 and assumed various positions at NIES from 1992 to 2008. Dr. Harasawa became Director of Environmental Planning Section of Social and Environmental Systems Division, NIES in 2005. He was the Director of Environment and Energy, Council for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan in 2008. Dr. Harasawa rejoined NIES in 2010 as the Director of the Center for Social and Environmental Systems Research and is the Vice President since 2013.

Jitendra Vir Sharma

Indian Forest Service and Senior Fellow
The Energy and Resources Institute

Dr. Jitendra Vir Sharma belongs to Indian Forest Service, a practicing forester having more than 30 years of experience for managing tropical and temperate forests. He did his masters in Botany, Forestry and Law, M.Phil. in Social Sciences and Ph.D. in Natural Resource Economics with topic "Economic Valuation of Ecosystem Services. He has been negotiator on behalf of the Government of India to United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF), Committee on Forestry (COFO) under FAO, Asia Pacific Forestry Commission (APFC) in addition he has been part of various Indian Delegations for forest, biodiversity and climate change. In addition, he headed the forest Policy and Forest International Cooperation in the Government of India. Dr. Sharma is at present on deputation to TERI as Senior Fellow and Faculty in the TERI University. He dealt various Research Projects on AR-CDM, REDD+, Community Conserve Areas, Integrated Watershed Management, Rehabilitation Forestry, Valuation of Ecosystem Services, Economic Impact of desertification, drought and land degradation, and Social Issues of the Forestry Sector. He has written many research papers, books and articles.

Joao Aleluia

Project Coordinator
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

João Aleluia is the coordinator of the regional programme on "Pro-poor and sustainable solid waste management in secondary cities and small towns", which has been implemented by UNESCAP since 2009. With ESCAP, Joao also worked on initiatives related to the efficient use of energy and advanced-fossil fuel technologies. Prior to joining ESCAP, Joao managed the operations of a Norwegian-owned CDM project development company based in Beijing, China. He also worked as a management and strategy consultant for several years. Joao holds a Master in Science in Engineering and Industrial Management (Technical University of Lisbon), as well as a Master's in Energy Management from ESCP-EAP (Paris), IFP-French Petroleum Institute, and BI Norwegian School of Management.

Kaname Ikeda

President
Remote Sensing Technology Center of Japan

Mr. Kaname Ikeda obtained his degree specializing in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Tokyo, Japan in 1968 and has been long engaged in administration of Science and Technology Development, of which, he served as Scientific Counselor at Embassy of Japan to the United States of America (USA) from 1985 to 1988, Director-General for Nuclear Safety, Director-General for R&D at the Science and Technology Agency and Deputy Minister for Science and Technology. After serving as an Executive-Director at the then National Space Development Agency (now JAXA) from 2001 to 2003, he served as Ambassador of Japan to Croatia from 2003 to 2006. He was selected as Nominee Director-General for ITER International Fusion Energy Organization in November 2005. Upon completion of his duty of Ambassador in March 2006, he immediately moved to Cadarache, France where the fusion plant was to be constructed. He has established the ITER Organization under ITER Treaty among EU, Japan, Russia, USA, China, Korea and India and contributed to the settlement of project baseline and brought the construction of ITER in full-swing in 2010. After resigned from the ITER Organization, he served shortly as Scientific Counselor to the Japan Atomic Energy Authority, and joined the Remote Sensing Technology Center, Japan as an Executive Managing Director in April 2011.

Katayama Hiroyuki

Associate Professor
The University of Tokyo

Dr. Katayama Hiroyuki is currently an Associate Professor at Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo. He received his B.S., M.S., and Doctor of Engineering in Urban Engineering from The University of Tokyo, Japan, in 1993, 1995, and 1998, respectively. He was Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science during 1997-1998. He joined the Department of Urban Engineering, The University of Tokyo in 1998 as Research Associate, and promoted as Assistant Professor at the Department of Urban Engineering from January to July 2002, and Assistant Professor at the Institute of Environmental Studies, School of Frontier Science of the same university from August 2002 to March 2004. He resumed his position as Assistant Professor at the Department of Urban Engineering from April 2004 to October 2007 and became Associate Professor since October 2007. Dr. Hiroyuki’s research interests include health-related water microbiology focusing on virus detection, water/wastewater treatment and risk management. He has conducted research on development of virus concentration method, disinfection and survey on occurrence of viruses in water in Japan and Southeast Asian countries.

Kazuo Yamamoto

Vice President for Resource Development
Asian Institute of Technology

Prof. Kazuo Yamamoto graduated from Department of Urban Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Tokyo in 1977, and received his Master's in 1979 and his PhD in 1983. In 1985, he was appointed as Associate Professor of the Faculty of Engineering, The University of Tokyo and seconded to Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) for two years from 1987. He had served as Professor, the Faculty of Engineering and then Environmental Center, The University of Tokyo since 1995, Director, Environmental Science Center (2003-2007), and Visiting Professor & Senior Advisor to the AIT President (October to December, 2013). In January 2014, he was appointed as Vice President for Resource Development at the AIT and currently also serves as Professor in the Environmental Science Center, as well as Professor in charge of graduate program, Department of Urban Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo.

Kensuke Fukushi

Professor
The University of Tokyo

Dr. Kensuke Fukushi is the Professor at the Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science, The University of Tokyo, Japan. He obtained his Bachelor of Engineering and Master of Engineering in Civil Engineering from Tohoku University, Japan in 1989 and 1991, respectively. He received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Utah, U.S.A. in 1996. He joined Tohoku University in 1996 as Research Associate and promoted to be Assistant Professor in 1997. He served as Assistant Professor at Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand in 1999 and became Associate Professor at AIT in 2001. At the same year, he joined the Environmental Science Center, The University of Tokyo as Associate Professor. He moved to the Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science (IR3S), The University of Tokyo in 2005. Prof. Fukushi’s research interests include environmental engineering, risk assessment, climate change effect, water resource, biological technology, membrane technology. His research projects cover the integrated climate assessment – risks, uncertainties and society, establishment of research platform for developing models to predict future health risks posed by changes in climate, land use and population, development of international network for sustainability science and on health risk assessment in urban area.

Lal Samarakoon

Director
GeoInformatics Centre, Asian Institute of Technology

Dr. Lal Samarakoon currently works as the Director of Geoinformatics Center of Asian Institute of Technology. He possess extensive experience working in Asia—10 years in Japan, which includes five years of graduate studies and over 15 years with Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok. The focus of his work is on the application of spatial analytic techniques using GIS, remote sensing, GPS in resource management for sustainable development through teaching, research, training, and real-world application. As the Director of the self-funded Geoinformatics Center (GIC) of AIT, responsibilities include administration, personnel management, financial management, promotion, regional/international collaboration, research and development of real-world application related to geo-spatial technologies, institutional development and capacity building through training, and consulting in the region. Currently he is a Visiting Scientists for Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) providing his assistance to JAXA for promotion and development of technological capacities in Asia to use satellite data in real-world applications.

Mara Mendes

Senior Programme Specialist
Asian Institute of Technology

Dr. Mara Regina Mendes is a Senior Programme Specialist at the Regional Resource Centre for the Asia and the Pacifiaitc (RRC.AP), Asian Institute of Technology. She received her M.Sc. from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, and her Ph.D. from The University of Tokyo, Japan. With over 15 years' experience in climate change as academia, international organization, and private sector, Dr. Mendes gained solid experience in market-based mechanisms, and has worked intensely in projects on solid waste management, renewable energy, fuel switch, energy efficiency, and forestry. Prior to joining RRC.AP, she acted as an Ad Hoc consultant for the UNFCCC and also worked as Climate Change and Sustainability Coordinator for Latin America at LRQA. From 2005 through 2012, Dr. Mendes was a Senior Carbon Market Analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities (MUMSS) in Brazil. Prior to this, she held positions as researcher at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies and at The University of Tokyo. Besides extensive work on climate change mitigation and carbon inventories, Dr. Mendes has also experience on MRV, carbon auditing, watershed management, water footprint, municipal solid waste management, recycling, environmental urban management, life cycle assessment. She authored research papers, academic and technical reports.

Niu Dongjie

Associate Professor
Tongji University

Dr. Niu Dongjie is currently an Associate Professor in College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai China. She has carried out a series of projects on anaerobic digestion of organic wastes and landfill leachate treatment, including 863 high-tech projects supported by Ministry of Science and Technology of China and projects sponsored by Shanghai Science and Technology Committee and others.

Nobuko Saigusa

Deputy Director
National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan

Dr. Nobuko Saigusa is currently the Deputy Director, Center for Global Environmental Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan. Her background is in micrometeorology and the terrestrial carbon cycles. She is involved in various research programs including Global Environment Monitoring (CGER/NIES), JapanFlux and AsiaFlux (Japanese and Asian monitoring networks for greenhouse gas fluxes), and JaLTER (Japan Long-Term Ecological Research Network). Her scientific interest is temporal and spatial variation of carbon and water cycles in forest ecosystems in Asia and its interactions with global climatic changes.

Nophea Sasaki

Associate Professor
Asian Institute of Technology

Dr. Nophea Sasaki is an Associate Professor of Natural Resources Management at School of Environment, Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology (AIT). Dr. Sasaki has worked on REDD+ scheme, development of forest carbon accounting systems, biodiversity conservation, and low-carbon development projects. Prior to joining AIT in January 2016, Dr. Sasaki was an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Applied Informatics, University of Hyogo in Japan. He was a postdoc in forestry-carbon cycling modeling at the Max Planck Institute of Meteorology, a Bullard Fellow in advanced forest research at Harvard University, and a visiting scientist at Adelaide University. He is recognized for his research achievements in sustainable management of forests, carbon retention, and result-based financial compensation. He served as global expert panel on REDD+, forest management, and biodiversity conservation and advisor for a special REDD+ Promotion Project of the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute in Japan. He has organized several regional training workshops on carbon accounting and carbon trading systems to government officials from ASEAN member states. Dr. Sasaki has a PhD degree majoring in forest management from Gifu University, Japan.

Osamu Mizuno

Director
Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific, Asian Institute of Technology

Mr. Osamu Mizuno is currently the Director of the Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific, Asian Institute of Technology. A Japanese national, Mr. Mizuno previously worked at the UN Secretary General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation at the UN headquarters in New York which is to give advice to the UN Secretary General as well as to galvanize action on water and sanitation issues. He has also served in the Ministry of the Environment, Japan in various capacities, with his last designation as Director of the Office of International Cooperation to promote co-benefit projects on climate change and other environmental challenges. He also worked for several international institutions including Global Environment Facility, the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe and the United Nations University. His professional career mostly involved promoting environmental policies and projects and establishing international cooperation relating to air and water pollution control, climate change mitigation and adaptation, chemical management. Mr. Mizuno completed both his bachelor's and master's degrees in Environmental Engineering at Kyoto University, Japan, where he specialized on water pollution control. He also obtained a master's degree in Public Administration at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Peter King

Senior Policy Advisor
Institute for Global Environmental Strategies

Dr. Peter King has been an avid environmentalist since undergraduate days at Melbourne University and it has remained an abiding passion for 40 years. He started his career in the Soil Conservation Authority in the state of Victoria and became the Land Studies Coordinator in Victoria's first Ministry for Conservation. He spent some time at the Environment and Policy Institute, East West Center in Hawaii and then set up his own environmental consulting company. Following some successful work for the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as a consultant in the period 1984-88, he started work with the ADB in March 1991 as an Environment Specialist in the Office of Environment. He established a sound reputation as ADB's leading natural resources management ("green") expert, with personal responsibility for over 50 loan and TA projects. In 1998, he was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy (Environmental Science) degree from Murdoch University in Perth, with a thesis entitled "Integrated Economic and Environmental Planning at the Sub-national Level in Asia." In 2005, he took early retirement from ADB and is currently a Senior Policy Advisor for the Institute of Global Environmental Strategies, heads the Asian Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network secretariat, and is Team Leader, Adaptation Project Preparation and Finance on the ADAPT Asia-Pacific project.

Rizaldi Boer

Executive Director
Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia

Prof. Rizaldi Boer is currently Executive Director of Centre for Climate Risk and Opportunity Management in Southeast Asia and Pacific of Bogor Agricultural University. He has been working on issues related to GHG mitigation strategies focusing on agriculture, forest and other land uses since 1998. Now, he is very active in conducting a number of studies related to policies toward low carbon development. Some of his recent works related to LCD are Low carbon development strategies of Bengkalis District-Riau Province that reduce pressure on peat-land ecosystems, reducing agricultural expansion into forests: Analysis of implementation and financing gaps and supporting local governments in the development of local appropriate mitigation action (LAMA-Indonesia) in South Sumatra and Papua Province. He obtained his PhD degree in Agriculture from University of Sydney, Australia in 1994.

Shuzo Nishioka

Senior Research Advisor
Institute for Global Environmental Strategies

After 12 years engineering experience in Asahi Chemical Co. Ltd, he joined National Institute for Environmental Studies of Japan (NIES). Research areas there were global and regional environmental assessment and environmental policy. He served as professor of Tokyo Institute of Technology and Keio University in 1997-2001 and as Executive Director of NIES in 2001-2007. From late 1980's, he devoted in climate change issues and engaged in IPCC from 1988 to 2007 mainly in impact assessment and adaptation methodology. In 2004 -2009, he lead a strategic research of Japan Low Carbon Society Project of MoE, to explore the scenario of 70% GHG reduction in 2050 in Japan. This works was extended to Prime Minister Fukuda's Low Carbon Society policy (60-80% reduction in 2050) declared at Toyako G8 Summit. From 2007-12 he served as a Co-leader of Kakushin Climate modeling project of MEXT and chaired Sub-committee for Low Carbon Japan Scenario in Central Council of Environment Japan. His recent work focuses on international collaboration for supporting Asian countries' leap-fogging to low carbon world and collaboration with European climate research community.

Supat Wangwongwatana

Senior Programme Specialist
Asian Institute of Technology

Dr. Supat Wangwongwatana joined the Regional Resources Center for Asia and the Pacific (RRC.AP) in April 2012 working for the Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET). Prior to joining RRC.AP, he was with Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment as the Secretary-General of the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning and the Director-General of the Pollution Control Department for 5 years during which he oversaw all environmental and pollution management programs in Thailand. He also served as the Chairperson for the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities during 2003 and 2004; the Director of the Thailand Air Pollution Center of Excellence; the Coordinator of Clean Air Training Network for Asia; and served on the WHO advisory panel in the areas of air and water pollution. He is instrumental and responsible for the improved air quality in Bangkok and Thailand. He received his Ph.D. in Air Pollution Engineering from the University of Cincinnati, Master Degree on Environmental Science and Management from Asian Institute of Technology and the First Class Honor (Gold Medal) for his B.Sc. in Public Health (Occupational Health) from Mahidol University. He is also the first recipient of an honorary degree from USEPA's Air Pollution Training Institute in recognition of his outstanding leadership, vision, and technical expertise in the field of air pollution training, and dedicated service to the field of air quality management and for his determined efforts to improve the air quality of Thailand and the region and commitment to training young people in his field in preparing future generations to protect health and safeguard the natural environment. He was also awarded an Asian Air Quality Management Champion from the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities for his efforts to institutionalize air quality management in Thailand and for acting as a role model for air quality management practitioners in cities and countries across Asia.

Thawal Saengsawang

Marketing Director
TES-AMM (Thailand) Co., Ltd.

Mr. Thawal Saengsawang received his Master degree in Chemical Engineering from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. He has worked as Marketing Director at the TES-AMM since 2005 focusing on electronic waste recycling. He also works at SAND Co., Ltd. since 2001 as a consultant specializing in hazardous and non-hazardous waste recycling. Since 2015, Mr. Saengsawang has been actively involved in EH&S and waste management in the Environmental Solution (Thailand) Co., Ltd. as well as at the PSEZ Industrial Estate in Laos.

Tomonori Ishigaki

Senior Researcher
National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan

Dr. Tomonori Ishigaki obtained his Butcherer, M.Eng., and Ph.D. specializing in Environmental Engineering from the Osaka University, Japan in 1996, 1998, and 2000, respectively. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow of Japan Society of Promotion of Science at the same university in 2000-2001. He has been engaged in the waste landfill issues for more than 15 years. His research interests and published works include gas emission from landfills, methane oxidation in landfill surface, microbial community assessment in landfill, leachate management in Tropical Southeast Asia, assessment of gas potential of landfilled waste. Dr. Ishigaki was a Researcher at the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) from 2001 to 2005; and joined Ryukoku University in 2005 as Lecturer and promoted to Associate Professor later on. He rejoined NIES in 2010 as a Senior Researcher.

Tsuyoshi Fujita

Director
National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan

Prof. Tsuyoshi Fujita is a Director for Center for Social and Environmental Systems Research at National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan. He is also an alliance professor of Nagoya University as well as a visiting professor of United Nations University in Japan. His research fields are eco industrial development, low carbon city, urban environment simulation system, circular economy planning and spatial LCA, where he has published around seventy journal papers. He is engaged in several national research projects to develop integrative urban technology and policy simulation system for Japanese and Asian cities and regions.

Yayoi Takeuchi

Researcher
National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan

Dr. Yayoi Takeuchi obtained her B.Sc. in Agricultural Sciences from Nagoya University, Japan in 2001, and M.Sc., and Ph.D. specializing in Biology from the Kyoto University, Japan in 2003 and 2006, respectively. She was Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science at Kyoto University, University of Zurich, Switzerland, as well as Research Fellow at Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Japan during 2004-2010. She was Ph.D. Fellow at the Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Japan during 2010-2013. Dr. Takeuchi joined the National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan as Researcher in 2013. She was trained as an ecologist, and has conducted studies on plant reproductive ecology, empirical and theoretical community ecology, and biodiversity conservation. Her main field site is Southeast Asian tropical forests. The study in which she is currently engaged focuses on human-nature interactions in a human-modified landscape in Borneo, towards the formulation of a conservation strategy integrated with indigenous practice.