Dr. Yoshimitsu Chikamoto currently serves as an Associate Professor of Earth System Modeling at the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences, Department of Plants, Soils and Climate, Utah State University (Logan, UT, USA). He received a B.S. degree in Applied Physics from the Tokyo University of Science in 2000, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Ocean and Atmospheric Science from the Hokkaido
University in 2002 and 2005, respectively. Dr. Chikamoto’s work focuses on developing a climate forecasting program to provide society with reliable climate information in the future. His research also focuses on improving climate forecast and understanding the dynamics of Earth system processes. His research interests include seasonal-to-decadal climate prediction, physical processes of climate
variability and change, and the climate impacts on Earth system processes. He was awarded The Syono Award by the Meteorological Society of Japan in 2018.
Dr. Joseph D. Birch currently serves as a Research Associate with the Miesel Fire and Ecosystem Ecology Lab at Michigan State University, East Lansing. He received a BSc degree in Conservation and
Restoration Ecology from Utah State University in 2016 and a PhD degree in Forest Biology and Management from the University of Alberta in 2021. Currently, he is studying the post-wildfire recovery and carbon dynamics of mixed-conifer forests in California, USA. His research interests include exploring the intersections of above- and below-ground ecosystem ecology of western conifer forests. In particular, he has a deep passion and interest in belowground fungal ecology, dendroecology, and old-growth forests.
Dr. James A. Lutz is Professor of Forest Ecology at the S. J. and Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural
Resources at Utah State University (Logan, UT, USA). He received his PhD degree in Ecosystem Analysis from the University of Washington in 2008. Dr. Lutz studies the ecosystems of western North America to contribute to science-based conservation and management of our natural resources in the face of changing climate and demography. His research interests mainly include the demography
and spatial patterns of primary forests, especially the causes of tree death, and how fire shapes old-growth forest communities. Dr. Lutz is the principal investigator for three Smithsonian ForestGEO 'big plots' in Yosemite National Park (CA, USA), the Gifford Pinchot National Forest (WA, USA), and Cedar Breaks National Monument (UT, USA).
