Kensuke Fukushi is Professor and Director at the Institute for Future Initiatives (IFI), The University of Tokyo. Prior to joining the University of Tokyo as an Associate Professor in 2001, he held academic positions at the Asian Institute of Technology (Associate and Assistant Professor) and Tohoku University (Assistant Professor). His research interests are on environmental engineering, risk assessment, climate change, water resources, biological technology, and membrane technology. He holds a PhD on Civil Engineering from the University of Utah.

Antoine Bocquet is Vice President Institutional Sales, Japan, Southeast Asia and Oceania for Springer Nature, based in Tokyo, and has over 20 years’ experience in the academic publishing industry in the Asia-Pacific. He also holds the position of Managing Director of the Springer Nature companies in Japan. He is responsible for all Institutional sales in the regions of Japan, Southeast Asia and Oceania, and during his career has led publishing programs in Asia, founded a medical communications business in Japan and been a book commissioning editor. An Australian by birth, Tony holds a Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo (Physics) and is a graduate of Griffith University in Brisbane. He has lived permanently in Japan since 1994.

Chiho Watanabe is Professor and Dean of Interfaculty Initiative in Planetary Health at Nagasaki University. He is also Emeritus Professor at The University of Tokyo. Before assuming his current position in 2021 he acted as the President of the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) (2017-2021). Some of his other positions have included President of Japanese Society of Health and Human Ecology (2017-present); Chairman of the Society of Environmental Science (2021-present); Associate Member, Section II of the Science Council of Japan; former Third Vice President, Society for Human Ecology; and former Chair, Human Ecology Section, Ecological Society of America. His research has focused on toxicity modification of hazardous chemicals by physicochemical and genetic factors, environmental health in developing countries, sustainability and human health, and the use of satellite information on health issues. He holds a PhD on Health Sciences from The University of Tokyo, Japan.

Magdalena Skipper is Editor in Chief of Nature and Chief Editorial Advisor for the Nature Portfolio. She has considerable editorial and publishing experience, having worked as Chief Editor of Nature Reviews Genetics, Senior Editor for genetics and genomics at Nature and Editor in Chief of Nature Communications. She is passionate about mentorship, research integrity, as well as collaboration and inclusion in research. As part of her desire to promote underrepresented groups in research, in 2018 she co-launched the Nature Research Inspiring Science Award for women early-career researchers. She holds a PhD on genetics from University of Cambridge, UK.

Yoonhee Kim is an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo. Before assuming her current role in 2018, she was an Assistant Professor and Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University. She also conducted research as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Seoul National University College of Medicine, South Korea. She has received The University of Tokyo Excellent Young Researcher Award 2019 and the Asian Universities Alliance (AUA) Scholars Award 2019-2020. She is an environmental epidemiologist. Her research interests include climate change and variability, air pollution, and population health across multiple countries. She holds a PhD from the Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, South Korea.

Nobuo Nishi is Dean and Professor at the Graduate School of Public Health, St. Luke's International University. Before joining his current role in 2023, he had a long career as Chief (2009-2023) of the International Center for Nutrition and Information at the National Institutes of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition.
He also worked in different capacities as Assistant Chief (2007-2009) and Section Chief (2004-2009) at the Department of Epidemiology (Hiroshima) of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation, as well as Associate Professor at Iwate Medical University (2002-2004). He served Japanese Society of Public Health as Editor-in-Chief (2015-2020). His main research interests are on social epidemiology, social ecological modelling, and system dynamics. He holds a PhD in Social Medicine from Osaka University and an MBA from Doshisha Business School.

Saori Kashima is an Associate Professor at Hiroshima University. She joined Hiroshima University in 2010 as an Assistant Professor, and since 2022 she has been acting as the Director of the Center for the Planetary Health and Innovation Science (PHIS). Among different honours she has received the President’s Special Award (Phoenix Outstanding Researcher Award) for contribution to improving the research capabilities by producing outstanding research achievements. Her research interests are in environmental epidemiological study in air pollution, environmental health and global health. Furthermore, she has now launched a transdisciplinary project related to community-oriented practices in healthy ageing with planetary health. She received a PhD on Environmental Science from Okayama University.

Emiko Nishimura is the Director of the Global Health Team, at the Human Development Department, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). She currently oversees JICA’s health programs on health security, following her tenure as the Director of the Office for COVID-19 Response in the same department. She joined JICA in 2003 and throughout her carreer, she has been involved in JICA’s health sector cooperation mainly in Southeast Asia and Africa, particularly in the fields of health systems, maternal and child health and health security. She worked in JICA Tanzania Office (2009-2012) as a representative in charge of health programs. She was seconded from JICA to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the Bureau of Global Health (2007-2009) to promote US-Japan collaboration in the health sector. She holds an MSc in Public Health in Developing Countries, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.