Professor Fumiko Kasuga

Speciality / Research theme / Keywords

Sustainability, Coordination of Transdisciplinary Research, Food Safety Risk Assessment

Supervision

Masters ProgrammeDoctoral Programme

Qualifications

Ph.D., Doctor of Veterinary Medicine

Affiliation(s)

Professor, Interfaculty Initiative in Planetary Health, Nagasaki University
Global Hub Director – Japan, Future Earth Secretariat

Background

• 1982: Graduated from The University of Tokyo, Faculty of Agriculture
• 1988: Ph.D. from The University of Tokyo

• 1988: Research fellow of Japan Health Science Foundation
• 1989: National Institute of Infectious Diseases
• 1991-1992: Postdoctoral fellow at School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA
• 2002: National Institute of Health Sciences
• 2011-2014: Vice-President in charge of international activities, Science Council of Japan
• 2015 -: Global Hub Director – Japan, Future Earth Secretariat
• 2016: National Institute for Environmental Studies
• 2023 -: Nagasaki University

Research

Promotion and facilitation of transdisciplinary research for sustainability of the global environment and human society, as Future Earth global secretariat

Five MOST IMPORTANT/INTERESTING recent publications

1. Fumiko Kasuga
   Ch.72. Climate change: food safety challenges in the near future
   In: Present Knowledge in Food Safety: A Risk-Based Approach Through the Food Chain
   https://ilsi.org/present-knowledge-in-food-safety/
   Academic Press, October 2022, p. 1113-1124
   ISBN: 978-0-12-819470-6
2. Marcin Pawel Jarzebski, Thomas Elmqvist, Alexandros Gasparatos, Kensuke Fukushi, Sofia Eckersten, Dagmar Haase, Julie Goodness, Sara Khoshkar, Osamu Saito, Kazuhiko Takeuchi, Töres Theorell, Nannan Dong, Fumiko Kasuga, Ryugo Watanabe, Giles Bruno Sioen, Makoto Yokohari and Jian Pu
   Ageing and population shrinking: implications for sustainability in the urban century
   Urban Sustainability (2021) 1:17 ; https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-021-00023-z
3. Fumiko Kasuga
   Science as a common language for contribution to sustainability and peace
   Special Feature: The Sustainability–Peace Nexus in the Context of Global Change
   Sustainability Science, 16(4), 1229-1231, July, 2021
   DOI 10.1007/s11625-021-00972-5
4. Shinichiro Asayama, Seita Emori, Masahiro Sugiyama, Fumiko Kasuga, Chiho Watanabe
   Are we ignoring a black elephant in the Anthropocene? Climate change and global pandemic as the crisis in health and equality
   Sustainability Science, Published online: 07 November, 2020
   DOI 10.1007/s11625-020-00879-7
5.  Andy Haines, Francesca Harris, Fumiko Kasuga, Catherine Machalaba
   Analysis: Future Earth-linking research on health and environmental sustainability
   BMJ2017;357:j2358 doi: 1136/bmj-j2358(2017.June.1)

Message

Human economic activities have greatly contributed to rapidly increasing global environmental crises, such as climate change and biodiversity loss. On the other hand, environmental change has significant impact on human health, including pandemic. In order to address interlinking, complex issues, science-based decision making is critical. At the same time, collaboration between academia and the society, namely transdisciplinary research, is essential, in addition to interdisciplinary collaboration within academia. The core principle of transdisciplinary research is not selling scientific findings and ideas to be used in the society, but co-design of research with professionals and innovators in the society. Scientists should be modest and learn culture and societal systems. Future Earth, global network of research for sustainability, was established in order to develop such new type of research. Planetary Health employs similar approaches.