Akito Y. Kawahara

Akito Y. Kawahara is an American and Japanese entomologist, scientist, and advocate of nature education, and the son of the modern conceptual artist On Kawara.

Akito Y. Kawahara
Born
New York City, United States
NationalityAmerican, Japanese
CitizenshipUSA
EducationCornell University, B.S.
Smithsonian Institution & University of Maryland, M.S. and Ph.D.
all in Entomology
Alma materCornell University
Known forEntomology, Evolution
Scientific career
FieldsBiology
Evolutionary Biology
Entomology
InstitutionsUniversity of Florida
Doctoral advisorCharles Mitter
Jerome C. Regier
Websitehttps://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/mcguire/kawahara/akito-kawahara/

Kawahara is a Professor and Curator at the University of Florida and lead researcher at the Florida Museum of Natural History's McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity.[1] He also holds the position of Research Associate at the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History.

Education

Kawahara received his bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 2002 and his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland with Dr. Charles Mitter through the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History in 2010. He was a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa before starting his position at the University of Florida.

Career

Kawahara's research interests are insect evolution, predator-prey interactions, and genetics. He has published over 175 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and has received many national and international awards. Among his largest contributions are papers on the evolution of butterflies and moths.[2][3][4] He also conducts research on ultrasound production and hearing in moths and echolocation in bats, which he works on with Dr. Jesse Barber.[5][6][7][8] He has also published numerous papers on the importance of insects as models for nature education, including a highly popular article on the action items that every individual can do to help global insect declines.[9]

Awards and recognition

He has appeared in numerous films and television shows, including Nature: "American Spring LIVE" (2019),[10] Nature: "Nature's Sex, Lies, and Butterflies" (2018),[11] David Attenborough's Conquest of the Skies 3D (2015),[12] and Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo (2009).

Personal life

Kawahara was born in New York City, United States. He is the son of modern Contemporary Artist, On Kawara. As a child, he traveled between New York and Tokyo annually, attending two schools simultaneously, a schooling called "Taiheiyou-tsugaku" (Trans-Pacific Commute). He resides in Florida and New York, and has two children.

Selected publications

References
  1. "Florida Museum Faculty Spotlight".
  2. "Butterflies and plants evolved in sync, but moth 'ears' predated bats". 21 October 2019.
  3. Wade, Nicholas (21 October 2019). "How the Butterfly Discovered Daylight". The New York Times.
  4. "Scientists Trace Butterfly and Moth Evolutionary History". 1 August 2014.
  5. "The Evolution of Hawkmoths' Sonar Jamming". 13 May 2015.
  6. "Moths Vibrate Genitals to Scare Bats". 8 July 2013.
  7. Quenqua, Douglas (16 February 2015). "Moth Tails Divert Bats". The New York Times.
  8. Yong, Ed (21 October 2019). "A Textbook Evolutionary Story About Moths and Bats Is Wrong". The Atlantic.
  9. Kawahara, Akito Y.; Reeves, Lawrence E.; Barber, Jesse R.; Black, Scott H. (12 January 2021). "Opinion: Eight simple actions that individuals can take to save insects from global declines". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 118 (2): e2002547117. Bibcode:2021PNAS..11820025K. doi:10.1073/pnas.2002547117. PMC 7812750. PMID 33431563.
  10. "PBS American Spring Live". PBS.
  11. "Sex, Lies and Butterflies". PBS. 2 Mar 2018.
  12. David Attenborough's Conquest of the Skies 3D at IMDb
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