Jackson Makoto Tsuji

As a Project Assistant Professor at the National Institute for Basic Biology (NIBB), I’m thrilled to be able to study how life and Earth have co-evolved through the activity of microorganisms. Although too small to see with the naked eye, microorganisms have been one of the most powerful agents of natural global change over Earth’s history and continue to have a profound effect on our water bodies, atmosphere, and ecosystem services. I study modern microorganisms to try to unravel how their ancestors participated in large-scale global change, with relevance to understanding both “how we got here” to the Earth we know today and microbial factors that can continue to shape our planet. My focus lies especially on understanding the history and ancestry of photosynthesis, one of the most important biological processes today for sustaining life. I delve into diverse aquatic environments to probe microbial phototrophs and their partners for signals of how these organisms have evolved and adapted over the course of geologic time.

Check out the Research tab to see the active research themes I’m exploring. I also have a newly made blog I hope to update from time to time with thoughts about experiments, code, or other things related to microbial ecology.

Education, work experience, and award info can be found on my JAMSTEC webpage (to be updated soon).

Publications are listed in my Google Scholar account.

Want to get in touch about science? Check out other social media icons at the bottom of this page for ways to contact me.