Akiko Satake

I am a postdoc in Evolutionary Ecology at Princeton University. I recieved my PhD at Kyushu University in Japan in 2002. My research interest is in developing theoretical framework to explore sustainable resource management. My current research focuses on how decisions of individual landowners influence landscape patterns. By developing an agent-based model for a coupled human and ecological system, we are addressing the following questions: (1) which social and ecological conditions favor forested or deforested landscapes, (2) what types of property regimes (individual, group, or government) are appropriate for effective management of forest ecosystems, and (3) how does the social structure of groups influence the success of forest management?

As for the questions:

1. What topics do you have some expertise in and would you be willing to help others learn them?

• Decision theory, Markov-chain, Descrete-time dynamics, Lattice model, Spatial statistics, Pair approximation.

2. What do you want to learn?

• Theories in Ecology
• Coupling of ecology and sociology
• Sustaibable resource managemnet

3. Do you have any projects that would benefit from interdisciplinary approach?

• Land-use modeling: I developed a simple Markov-chain model (agent-based model) for landscape dynamics. This model integrated a standard model for forest dynamics and behavioral (decision) model of landowers.