Juichi Yamagiwa is the director-general of Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, RIHN. He is a world-renowned researcher and expert in the study of primatology and human evolution. He was awarded doctor of science from Kyoto University in 1987. After holding positions at the Karisoke Research Center, Japan Monkey Center, and Primate Research Institute Kyoto University, he has been professor of Graduate School of Science at Kyoto University since 2002. He was dean of Graduate School and Faculty of Science from 2011 to 2013 and has been the 26th President of Kyoto University from 2014 to 2020. He has also served as president of International Primatological Society from 2008 to 2012, and as the editor-in-chief of Primates, a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal of primatology published by Springer Science+Business Media from 2010 to 2014. In Japan, he served as the president of the Japan Association of National Universities, the president of Science Council of Japan, and the member of Environmental Policy Committee of Ministry of Environment.

Yamagiwa’s passion for fieldwork research frequently made him travel to Africa, such as Rwanda, Republic of the Congo, and Gabonese Republic, where he discovered an abundance of new findings related to gorillas, through his unique viewpoint of evolution. He has published many papers books on social ecology of apes and monkeys and evolution of human sociality from a viewpoint of primatology. He has also argued nature-culture complex on the earth in Anthropocene and futurability of human society.