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, NY, US
NationalityAmerican, Japanese
EducationCornell University (B.S.) 2002; University of Maryland (M.S. and Ph.D.) 2010, all in Entomology
Alma materCornell University
Known forEntomology, evolution
Scientific career
FieldsEntomology, behavior, evolution
InstitutionsUniversity of Florida
Websitehttps://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/mcguire/kawahara/akito-kawahara/

Kawahara is an associate professor at the University of Florida and lead researcher at the Florida Museum of Natural History's McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity[1] and a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History.

Kawahara received his bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 2002 and his Ph.D. with Dr. Charles Mitter through the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in 2010. Kawahara's research interests are insect evolution, predator-prey interactions, and genetics. He has published over 140 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]

He has appeared in numerous films and television shows, including PBS Nature: American Spring Live (2019),[10] PBS Nature (TV Series): Nature's Sex, Lies, and Butterflies (2018),[11] David Attenborough's Conquest of the Skies (2014),[12] and Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo (2009).

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. doi:10.1073/pnas.2002547117. PMC 7812750. PMID 33431563.
  10. "PBS American Spring Live".
  11. "Sex, Lies and Butterflies". 2 March 2018.
  12. David Attenborough's Conquest of the Skies 3D at IMDb
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