Professor Yasuyuki Kono is Professor, Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS), Kyoto University. He was the former director of CSEAS from Apr. 2014 to Mar. 2018. He also serves as Vice President for international strategy, Kyoto University from Apr. 2018. He earned his doctoral degree in agriculture from the University of Tokyo in 1986. After joining CSEAS in 1987, he expanded research fields to natural resources management, rural livelihood studies, and human-nature interactions in Southeast Asia. Recently he, together with his multi-disciplinary colleagues, explores a new research field, “sustainable humanosphere studies”, which aims at embedding nature and environment in the dialogue of science and society.