Fukami earned a Bachelor's degree at Waseda University, a Master's degree at the University of Tokyo, and his PhD in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with James Drake and Daniel Simberloff. He was then a postdoctoral research fellow at Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research in Aotearoa – New Zealand and Assistant Professor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa before joining the Stanford faculty in 2008.
Fukami grew up near Tokyo, but often visited his grandparents in the countryside in Wakayama. His exposure to nature there cultivated his interest in ecology, which was further reinforced by his high-school biology teacher, who talked about natural history around the school in every class. It was during his time in Aotearoa and Hawaiʻi that he was introduced to Indigenous science.
For more, listen to the Mushroom Hour interview released on 9 June 2022.
Appointments
Faculty Director, Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve ('Ootchamin 'Ooyakma), Stanford University, 2023-present
Professor, Departments of Biology and Earth System Science, Stanford University, 2022-present
Professor, Department of Biology, Stanford University, 2021-2022
Associate Professor, Department of Biology, Stanford University, 2015-2020
Project Associate Professor, University of Tokyo, 2020
Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Stanford University, 2008-2015
Assistant Professor, Department of Zoology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2006-2008
Postdoctoral Fellow, Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research, New Zealand, 2003-2005
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Tokyo, 2005
Visiting researcher, Centre for Terrestrial Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology, 2004
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Univeresity of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1998-2003
Education
Ph.D., University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2003
Master's degree, University of Tokyo, 1998
Bachelor's degree, Waseda University, 1996
Exchange student, Lawrence University, 1993-1994
Awards and honors
Distinguished Naturalist Award, American Society of Naturalists, 2022 (award ceremony video)
Ecological Society of America Fellow, 2019
Presidential Award, American Society of Naturalists, 2019 (award ceremony video)
Outstanding Ecological Theory Paper Award, Ecological Society of America Theoretical Ecology Section, 2017
Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching, Stanford University, 2015
Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction, Science, 2013
CAREER award, National Science Foundation, 2012
Terman Fellowship, Stanford University, 2010
Denzaburo Miyadi Award, Ecological Society of Japan, 2005
Research support
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), "Mechanisms and Quantification of Priority Effects working group," 2021-2023
National Science Foundation, "Dimensions: Collaborative Research: Assembly and function of nectar microbial communities," 2017-2022
National Science Foundation, "OPUS: Historical contingency in community assembly," 2016-2018
National Science Foundation, "Dissertation research: species pool influences on the structure and function of fungal symbiont communities," 2016-2017 (awarded to Devin Leopold)
National Science Foundation, "CAREER: community assembly of nectar-inhabiting microbes," 2012-2017
National Science Foundation, "Dissertation research: metabolic bet hedging as an explanation for maintenance of diverse tree-ectomycorrhizal mutualisms," 2012-2014 (awarded to Holly Moeller)
National Science Foundation, "Collaborative research: interactive effects of predation and ecosystem size on arthropod food webs in Hawaiian forests fragmented by lava flows," 2010-2016
National Science Foundation, Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant, "Dissertation research: regulation of species diversity by assembly history in ecological communities," 2002-2003
Marsden Fund of the Royal Society of New Zealand, "Do priority effects explain contrasting lineage diversification on islands?" 2013-2016 (received as co-PI)
Marsden Fund of the Royal Society of New Zealand, "Assembly history as a regulator of ecosystem functioning: a test with fungal communities," 2006-2009
Terman Fellowship, Stanford University, 2010-2013
Select seminar invitations
Inviations by graduate students
- University of British Columbia (Dennis H. Chitty Lecture), 2021
- University of Minnesota, St. Paul, 2021
- Washington University, St. Louis, 2018
- North Carolina State University (Bartholomew Brandt Lecture), 2018
- iDiv (keynote speaker), 2016
- Yale University (G. Evelyn Hutchinson Distinguished Speaker), 2015
- University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2012
- Michigan State University, 2010
- University of California, Irvine, 2009
- Washington University, St. Louis, 2008
Keynote speaker, 12th Annual University of Michigan Early Career Scientists Symposium, 2016
Service
Executive Council, American Society of Naturalists, 2019-2021 as Secretary, 2022-2024 as Past Secretary
Advisory Board, Trends in Ecology & Evolutoin, 2021-present
Board of Reviewing Editors, PNAS Nexus, 2023-present
Editorial board, Ecology and Ecological Monographs, 2021-present
Editorial board, Ecology Letters, 2007-2021
Editorial board, Oikos, 2006-2010, 2016-2021
Editorial board, PLoS ONE, 2013-2016
Guest editor, Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, 2012 issue
Member, ESA Fellows & Early Career Fellows selection subcommittee, 2020-2022
Member, ESA William S. Cooper Award selection subcommittee, 2014-2016
Review panelist, National Science Foundation, 2007, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020
Review panelist, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Science Foundation), for Jena Experiment, 2010
Manuscript reviewer, American Journal of Botany, American Naturalist, Annals of Botany, Applied Soil Ecology, Biological Invasions, BioScience, Diversity and Distributions, Ecological Modelling, Ecological Research, Ecology, Ecology Letters, Ecosystems, Environmental Microbiology, FEMS Microbiology Ecology, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, Functional Ecology, Fungal Ecology, Global Change Biology, ISME Journal, Japanese Journal of Ecology, Journal of Animal Ecology, Journal of Ecology, Journal of Vegetation Science, Microbial Ecology, Molecular Ecology, Nature, Nature Ecology & Evolution, New Zealand Journal of Ecology, Oecologia, Oikos, Population Ecology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, Quarterly Review of Biology, Restoration Ecology, Science, Trends in Ecology and Evolution, Yeast, 1998-present
Proposal reviewer, German Science Foundation, Israel Science Foundation, Marsden Fund of the Royal Society of New Zealand, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Geographic Society, US National Science Foundation, 2004-present