Welcome Tadashi Fukami, new SE
Submitted by editor on 24 May 2016.
We now have the great pleasure to welcome Dr. Tadashi Fukami to Oikos Editorial Board. Below is a short interview with him and if you want to know more, just visit his webiste: http://web.stanford.edu/~fukamit/
What's you main research focus at the moment?
I am interested in how species assemble into ecological communities, with a focus on understanding historical contingency, or when and why the structure and function of communities are contingent on the past history of species immigration.
Can you describe your research career?
I received a Bachelor's degree at Waseda University in Japan in 1996, a Master's degree from the University of Tokyo in 1998, and a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 2003. I was a postdoctoral fellow at Landcare Research in New Zealand from 2003-2005 and an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa from 2006-2008 before moving to Stanford University in 2008. Currently, I am an associate professor at Stanford.
How come that you became a scientist in ecology?
I grew up near Tokyo, but my parents used to take me and my brothers to my grandparents' place a few times a year for vacation. They lived in beautiful countryside (in Wakayama), and I think my exposure to nature there as a child (tide pooling, insect catching, fishing, bird watching, etc.) was important for me to want to become an ecologist. Another key factor to me was the high-school biology teacher I had, who talked about natural history around the school in every class he taught. Having him as a teacher reinvigorated my interest in ecology.
What do you do when you're not working?
For the time being, mostly parenting. I have 1- and 4-year-old sons, and they keep us busy.
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