Executive Committee Member (2023-2026): Noriaki MURAKAMI

I am a professor and a curator of Makino Herbarium, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan. I am a plant taxonomist, and have been conducting researches to clarify species diversity, speciation and evolution of land plants and fungi, actively using DNA information. I am especially interested in clarifying cryptic species, or different biological species but have very similar gross morphology. My research group has clarified that more than 50 cryptic species were contained in one morphological fern species, Asplenium nidus L. which was believed to have very wide geographical distribution throughout the Old World tropics. I also conducted researches on species diversity of independent gametophytes which can reproduce asexually through gemma for several thousand years, as well as those on reticulate evolution of apogamously reproducing ferns, which usually reproducing only asexually through spores but can sometimes hybridize with several related sexual species. I have promoted appropriate measures for Access to the genetic resources and Benefit Sharing (ABS) in Japan, conservation of biodiversity especially in Asia, and newly establishment of natural history museum in Japan collaborating with the Science Council of Japan.
I agree with the purposes of IUBS and its recent activities on Conservation, Environmental issues, Gender Equality and particular efforts to expand biological ethics and education. As an EC member, I would like to continue to support IUBS especially in the missions on conservation of biodiversity, ABS and education.