International Edition of Yomiuri News (one of the largest news paper companies in Japan) published an article featuring XTBG and Associate Professor Aki Nakamura. This news paper publishes a series of articles highlighting active Japanese people working and living overseas.

 The article first described Aki’s office with over 100 insect specimen boxes and mention that Aki uses insects to see the potential impacts of climate change. Then the article mention that Aki has been working at Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences for over 2 years to conduct his insect studies. The article highlighted his and his colleagues’ latest research on moths published in Scientific Reports. Ecological hypothesis states that animals living in climatically stable areas, such as the tropics, are more susceptible to climate change compared with those living in more highly seasonal environment. Aki and his colleagues, however, found that moths living in sub-tropical and sub-alpine areas may be as sensitive as those living in the tropics to changes in climatic conditions.

 The article also talks about how and why Aki became interested in becoming conservation biologist through his childhood experience when he saw the disappearances of wild animals as a result of conversion of forested into urban areas in his home town. Aki then stated seeking the ways to protect environment and realised importance of English communication skills and decided to study overseas.

 He completed his undergraduate and PhD at Griffith University in Australia. After 17 years of his stay in Australia, he then chose Xishuangbanna as a new frontier to further study ecology.

Aki now supervise students from not only China but Southeast Asian countries, and collaborate with researchers from Laos and Thailand. He is pursuing his childhood dream to find the way to conserve environment in SE Asia.