Chikae Tatsumi

Chikae is a microbial and ecosystem ecologist who is interested in the impacts of environmental changes, such as land use and climate changes, on soil microbial communities and their roles in ecosystem functions, including maintaining plant growth and health, carbon and nutrient cycling, and environmental pathogen levels. She earned her Bachelor's, Master's, and Ph.D. degrees at Kyoto University, specializing in forest science under the supervision of Dr. Ryunosuke Tateno, supported by a JSPS DC1 fellowship. Her Ph.D. work focused on the interaction of mycorrhizal fungi with soil nutrient-cycling microbes in dryland forest systems. During her Ph.D., she also studied at Dr. Pamela Templer’s lab at Boston University as a visiting student. She then joined Dr. Yoshitaka Uchida’s lab at Hokkaido University as a JSPS postdoctoral fellow, followed by a JSPS cross-border postdoctoral fellowship to join Dr. Jennifer Bhatnagar’s lab at Boston University, where she focused on the urban microbial communities and their roles in ecosystem functioning, especially in biogeochemical cycling.