The 3rd Symposium of the JSPS Core-to-Core Program in Bali, Indonesia: Health Risk Assessment for Adaptation to Climate Change

The 3rd Symposium of the JSPS Core-to-Core program was conducted at Swiss-Bel Resort, Bali, Indonesia last December 17, 2022. The symposium was organized by The University of Tokyo (IFI), Yamagata University, Ehime University, and Udayana University. The goal of the symposium was to discuss how climate change impacts key areas i.e. health, infectious disease prevention, nutrition, food security, and sustainability. 

Prof. Kensuke Fukushi (The University of Tokyo, IFI) and Prof. lr. Linawati (Udayana University) delivered the welcome remarks followed by four main sessions: (1) climate change impact moderated by Prof. Kensuke Fukushi, (2) environment moderated by Prof. Toru Watanabe, (3) health, nutrition, and food moderated by Prof. Kozo Watanabe, and (4) early career and student: climate, environment & health, nutrition & food moderated by Tri Atmaja (Ph.D. student at the University of Tokyo). 

Prof. Kensuke Fukushi (The University of Tokyo, IFI) and Prof. Ir. Linawati (Udayana University)

Prof. Kozo Watanabe (Ehime University) moderating the health, nutrition, and food session

Prof. Toru Watanabe (Yamagata University) moderating the environment session

Tri Atmaja (The University of Tokyo, IFI) moderating the final session

The first three sessions of the symposium tackled the global issues concerning food production, food security, water quality and access, agriculture, mosquito vectors, and mosquito-borne diseases. These sessions highlighted the need to accelerate efforts that can help minimize the risks and threats of long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Both mitigation and adaptation should be considered when developing new initiatives to resolve these issues. 

The final session focused on early career scientists and students who were given the opportunity to share their researches. One research aimed to use a remote sensing analysis for the assessment of coastal flood loss and damage linked to climate change whereas other researches were geared towards strengthening food system resilience, sustainable food consumption, and disease prevention. Atikah Fitria Muharommah and Jerica Reyes, Ph.D. students from MECOH lab, presented their works on the population genetic structure of Aedes aegypti as well as the use of Wolbachia and CRISPR-Cas 9 tool for understanding Dengue infection within the vector host. 

Atikah Fitria Muharommah (Ph.D. student at Ehime University)

From left to right: Dr. Kris Santos (DLSU), Dr. Kimberly Suministrado (UPLB), Dr. Kozo Watanabe (Ehime University), Prof. Divina Amalin (DLSU), and Marynold Purificacion (DLSU).

The symposium served as an avenue for the scientific discussion of problems caused by climate change. Also, It was a way to establish collaboration between attending institutions and mobilize solutions for the attainment of a climate neutral environment. 

Credits/Disclaimer: Some photos were obtained from the organizing committee and were only used for the purpose of documentation.