Tatsuya Amano | 天野達也

As a conservation scientist, Tatsuya is working on understanding changes in global biodiversity and providing scientific evidence for its conservation. Through his work and his background as a conservation scientist originally from Japan, he has increasingly been interested in, and is committed to, unveiling the importance of overcoming cultural barriers in environmental sciences. This has driven him to launch the translatE project in 2019, which aims to understand language barriers in conservation and more broadly in science. Tatsuya is currently an Associate Professor based at the School of the Environment and the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, The University of Queensland, Australia.

See Tatsuya’s interview in Nature’s Changemakers series: Biologist Tatsuya Amano works to make science a fairer place for non-fluent speakers.

See his profile at: UQ website / Google Scholar / ORCID / Bluesky / LinkedIn

Violeta Berdejo-Espinola

Violeta is a Multilingual Evidence Synthesis Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Her current research addresses the underutilisation of non-English biodiversity conservation evidence in policy and decision-making processes.

While evidence synthesis is a cornerstone of evidence-based conservation at both local and global scales, gaps remain in incorporating the diverse knowledge available in non-English scientific literature. To bridge this gap, she integrates multilingual international collaboration and artificial intelligence (AI), including machine learning and natural language processing techniques (e.g., text classification, thematic analysis). This integrated approach allows for the systematic aggregation of multilingual scientific evidence and the development of tools to automate the retrieval of non-English literature on biodiversity conservation. By leveraging human co-production and AI, she aims to create a multilingual synthesis tool that not only accelerates evidence synthesis but also ensures the inclusion of the diverse and valuable knowledge found in non-English evidence.

This work is part of the broader translatE project. Please reach out if you are interested in collaborating: [email protected]

Violeta has a wide range of interests and also explores human-nature interactions particularly in the urban Global South. Her interdisciplinary research intersects modelling nature’s contributions to people living in formal and informal settlements, health, climate change risks, perceptions of safety, and poverty. 

See profile at: Google Scholar

Marina Corella Tor

Marina is a PhD student working under the supervision of Dr Tatsuya Amano and Prof Richard Fuller. After working as a Research Assistant in the Fuller Lab for the last two years, they are very excited to turn all that work into a PhD. Marina hopes to uncover the current state of international environmental agreements and legislation around migratory bird protection worldwide. They are also interested in the effect of language barriers on international migratory bird agreements across the world.

Mengshuai Ge | 葛孟帅

Mengshuai is a PhD candidate at Peking University studying the impacts of cultivated grassland on grassland birds in the Tibetan Plateau under Professor Jin-Sheng He. He is currently a visiting PhD student at the University of Queensland under the supervision of Dr Tatsuya Amano. His research focuses on how birds on the eastern Tibetan Plateau are influenced by the establishment and development of cultivated grassland, which is an productive practice of livestock husbandry, and tries to find a bird-friendly method of planning and managing cultivated grassland.

孟帅是一名北京大学的博士生，他在贺金生教授的指导下研究青藏高原人工草地对草地鸟类的影响。他现在是一名昆士兰大学的联合培养博士生，由天野达也博士指导。他的研究关注青藏高原东部地区的鸟类如何受到人工草地（一种畜牧业的生产措施）的建植与发展的影响，并试图寻找一种对鸟类友好的人工草地规划与管理方式

Kelsey Hannah

Kelsey is a PhD Student working under the supervision of Dr Tatsuya Amano. She has an interest in understanding gaps and barriers in implementing conservation science in a way that can promote meaningful improvements. Her research will support the translatE project, focusing on understanding how language barriers can negatively impact the application of science in decision making as well as assessing the importance of non-english conservation science.

Nga-Yee Lai

Yee is a PhD student studying global and regional waterbirds using global datasets to identify trends and drivers of changes in waterbird distribution, abundance, connectivity between regions and community structures, aiming to provide guidance to better protect waterbirds and inform wetland conservation policy development. She also works with CSIRO and the University of Hong Kong on her PhD project.

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Waner Liang

Waner is a PhD student at the University of Queensland, supervised by Professor Richard Fuller and Dr Tatsuya Amano. Her research focuses on understanding how migration distance, threat exposure, and population trends interact across global waterbird flyways. She uses large-scale datasets and modelling to investigate how climate and land-use change shape migratory species’ survival. Her work aims to inform international strategies for protecting migratory birds along the East Asian–Australasian and Central Asian flyways.

Elize Ng

Elize is a postdoctoral research fellow working with Prof Richard Fuller and Dr Tatsuya Amano to develop a comprehensive conservation action database for shorebirds along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. This project aims to streamline conservation strategies and guide effective management for this remarkable group of migratory birds. With a background in population and evolutionary genomics, Elize’s previous research explored how factors such as captive trade, habitat fragmentation, and climate change shape avian species across regions from Southeast Asia to Antarctica. Through her postdoctoral work, she seeks to expand her research focus to involve applied conservation, with a specific interest in integrating genomics into conservation practices for a more targeted approach to biodiversity preservation. Outside of work, Elize is an avid birder, along with a passion for good food.

Conrad Pratt | コンラド・プラット

Conrad is a PhD student at the University of Queensland supervised by Dr. Tatsuya Amano and Professor Richard Fuller, and externally by Professor Munemitsu Akasaka at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. His research is focused on language barriers in science in Japan. Japan is a country with a high scientific research output but relatively low English proficiency, and Japanese scientists, stakeholders, and their research face multifaceted inequities as a result of the dominance of English in science. However, there has yet to be an in-depth analysis of the mechanisms and impacts of language barriers in science in Japan, within the environmental sciences or more generally. Conrad’s project aims to improve our understanding of this issue by providing valuable data and perspectives on the current causes and effects of language barriers on the generation, external consumption, and implementation of scientific research in Japan, and formulating potential solutions based on these findings.

Conrad is originally from Nova Scotia, Canada, and holds a B.Sc. in Environmental Science and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from the University of Toronto, and an M.Sc. in Biological Oceanography from Dalhousie University. Before undertaking his PhD, he worked at the interface of science and management as an Aquatic Invasive Species Biologist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada. His areas of expertise include meta-analysis, invasive species, and aquatic ecology. An avid language learner, Conrad currently speaks Japanese at an advanced level and is aiming to push for fluency over the course of his PhD. He is also an intermediate-level speaker of French and Korean.

コンラド・プラットはクイーンズランド大学の博士課程に在籍しており、クイーンズランド大学の天野達也准教授とリチャード・フラー教授、および東京農工大学の赤坂宗光教授のもとで研究を進めています。彼の研究は、日本の科学における言語の障壁に焦点を当てています。日本は科学研究の成果が多い一方で、多くの人にとって英語が第一言語ではない国であり、そのため日本の科学者や関係者は科学における英語の支配的地位によって多面的な不平等に直面しています。しかし、これまで日本の科学における言語の障壁の要因や影響について詳細な分析は行われてきませんでした。コンラドの研究は、この問題に関する理解を深めることを目的としており、言語の障壁が日本の科学研究の実施、国外での利用、そして実践的な応用にどのような影響を及ぼしているのかについて有益なデータと視点を提供し、これらの知見に基づいて解決策を提示することを目指しています。

コンラドはカナダのノバスコシア州出身で、トロント大学にて環境科学および生態・進化生物学の学士号を取得し、ダルハウジー大学にて生物海洋学の修士号を取得しました。博士課程に進む前は、カナダ水産海洋省において水生外来種生物学者として、科学と管理の接点で活動していました。彼の専門分野は、メタ分析や水生生態学、外来種研究などです。語学学習にも熱心であり、現在日本語を上級レベルで使用することができ、博士課程を通じて日本語力の更なる向上を目指しています。また、フランス語と韓国語も中級レベルで使用することができます。

Aquetzalli Nayelli Rivera-Villanueva

Nayelli is a PhD student under the supervision of Dr Tatsuya Amano at the University of Queensland. She is very passionate about bats and language inclusion in science. Her research will be about tapping into non-English-language science for addressing global challenges including biodiversity conservation. She is the founder of, and responsible for an environmental outreach NGO in Mexico (BUM). Her group works to disseminate the importance of bats and tackle the myths surrounding them across all of Mexico. Her goal is that all people can access scientific knowledge and that academia recognizes the importance of including non-English-language evidence in research.

Takehiko Shimizu | 清水孟彦

Takehiko is a PhD candidate at Hokkaido University, Japan. He is currently a visiting PhD student at The University of Queensland, supervised by Associate Professor Tatsuya Amano. His research focuses on understanding how natural wetland loss affects migratory shorebirds across multiple spatial and temporal scales, and on exploring ways to mitigate these impacts through artificial habitats (e.g., rice paddies, aquaculture ponds). He approaches these questions by field surveys, large-scale monitoring data analysis, and satellite-based remote sensing.

私は北海道大学の博士後期課程に在籍しており、現在はクイーンズランド大学にて天野達也准教授のもと、訪問研究学生として研究を進めています。主な研究テーマは、複数の時空間スケールにおいて、過去の自然湿地の消失がシギ・チドリ類に及ぼす影響を解明し、水田や養殖池といった人工的な生息地を活用した影響緩和策を検討することです。野外調査、広域かつ長期にわたるモニタリングデータの解析、衛星画像を用いたリモートセンシングなど、さまざまな手法を組み合わせて研究に取り組んでいます。

See his publications at: Google Scholar

Ayontika De

Ayontika completed a research project for her master’s in environmental management in 2024. Ayontika’s passion for sustainable technologies and resilient communities led her to pursue bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Biotechnology and now a master’s in environmental management at The University of Queensland. She has worked across public, private, and not-for-profit sectors, addressing scientific issues in education and health, developing a unique skill set from these diverse experiences. Previously, as a Project Associate, she researched occupational health challenges faced by mining communities in Jharkhand, focusing on silicosis and its socioeconomic impact. Ayontika’s journey includes key collaborations with government and not-for-profit institutions to advance adaptive sustainable frameworks, policy development, and ethical research practices.

Naoki Katayama

Naoki is a researcher seeking a better balance between food production and biodiversity conservation, especially in Asian rice ecosystems. Through his research experience in Japan, he is working on assessing the importance of multilingual scientific evidence for biodiversity conservation in agroecosystems. Naoki is a principal investigator at the Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, NARO in Japan and stayed with us for one year as a visiting academic at the School of the Environment.

See his profile at: Google Scholar / ORCID / Twitter

Haonan Wei

Haonan has completed her honours project in 2022 under the supervision of Dr Tatsuya Amano, which was about the content analysis of nature documentaries in China. Her childhood experiences, which had been filled with nature documentaries, provided her with vicarious connections to nature and thus drove her to study this subject. She has a strong interest in the role of popular science as an important medium to gain public attention to environmental issues.