Invited Speakers

Susan E. Carey

Harvard University

USA

Emerita Professor Susan Carey’s work at Harvard University has focused on the development of concepts in children and adults. Her research explores the initial representational repertoire, developmental changes, and learning mechanisms underlying shifts in conceptual understanding. Of particular interest are her groundbreaking studies on children's acquisition of the concept of death. Recognized with numerous awards, Prof. Carey has had a significant impact in the fields of developmental psychology and cognition.

Barbara J. King

William & Mary

USA

Emerita Professor Barbara J. King of William & Mary’s Anthropology Department is now a full-time science writer and public speaker. She has written 7 books on animals’ lives, including How Animals Grieve, and numerous magazine essays. Her TED talk on love and grief in the animal kingdom has been viewed over 3.5 million times. Prof. Barbara King's website is www.barbarajking.com

James R. Anderson

Kyoto University

Japan

Emeritus Professor James Anderson at Kyoto University, is internationally recognized for his research on wild and captive primates, particularly in the realms of primate cognition and mirror self-recognition. His substantial contributions to the field endure, highlighted by his editorial roles in esteemed journals. Notably, he has edited two special journal editions on comparative thanatology and thrice-organized the Kyoto Workshop on Evolutionary Thanatology, showcasing his authority in the research of primate cognition and its implications for the understanding of comparative evolutionary thanatology.

Alecia J. Carter

University College London

United Kingdom

Prof. Alecia Carter is a Lecturer in Evolutionary Anthropology at the Department of Anthropology, University College London, UK, focuses her research on how primates, particularly baboons, respond to the deaths of others, offering insights into the evolution of cognition and emotion. Her extensive study at the Tsaobis Baboon Project in Namibia has revealed intriguing behaviors, such as baboon mothers carrying and grooming the corpses of their infants, shedding light on the evolutionary origins of grief and death awareness.

Takahisa Miyatake

Okayama University

Japan

Prof. Takahisa Miyatake, a distinguished researcher at Okayama University, is a leading expert in insect behavior with over 170 publications. With years of dedicated and extensive research on the evolutionary aspects of death-feigning behavior in insects, his work provides valuable insights into the emergence of anti-predator strategies, emphasizing the trade-offs individuals face between enhancing survival prospects and limiting opportunities for feeding and reproduction.

Keynote Speaker

Teresa L. Iglesias

Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology

Japan

Dr. Teresa Iglesias serves as the team leader for cephalopod support at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. Her research centers on behavior, ecology, and neuroscience, with a specific emphasis on the investigation of sleep behavior in cephalopods. Previously, Dr. Iglesias conducted an experimental study on thanatological responses in western scrub jays, which raised intriguing questions about the social and emotional dimensions of these mobbing interactions, shedding light on the complex behaviors exhibited by scrub jays when faced with both dead conspecifics and heterospecifics.

Antonio Osuna-Mascaró

University of Veterinary Medicine

Austria

Dr. Antonio Osuna-Mascaró is an animal cognition researcher with a diverse academic background that include paleontology and tool use in wild chimpanzees. Currently based at the Goffin Lab, Messerli Research Institute, Vetmeduni, his work focuses on unraveling the cognitive and tool-using abilities of Goffin's cockatoos. Among these is his latest research to assess their understanding of irreversibility in relation to the concept of death.

André Gonçalves

Kyoto University

Japan

Dr. André Gonçalves, a post-doctoral researcher at the Center for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior (formerly Primate Research Institute) at Kyoto University, is deeply engaged in investigating the comparative thanatology of primates and other non-human animals through experimental methods. His research primarily focuses on exploring how chimpanzees perceive and process death and death-related stimuli. Utilizing techniques such as touchscreen tasks and eye-tracking technology, he aims to uncover the intricacies of chimpanzee cognition in this domain.

Sanjeeta S. Pokharel

Kyoto University

Japan

Dr. Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel is an elephant biologist who has been exploring the physiological adaptive mechanisms concerning ecological and human-induced challenges in free-ranging and captive Asian elephants. Her primary research interests revolve around understanding physiological and behavioural interplays in animals. A part of her elephant research also focuses on comparative thanatological studies in Asian elephants. She is a member of the IUCN Asian Elephant Specialist Group and currently works as a JSPS postdoctoral fellow at Asian and African Area Studies (ASAFAS), Kyoto University.

Nachiketha Sharma

Kyoto University

Japan

Dr. Nachiketha Sharma, a postdoctoral fellow at the Kyoto University Institute for Advanced Study, is deeply interested in understanding Asian elephants from a holistic perspective. His research mainly focuses on ecology, acoustic communication, physical cognition, and thanatology of Asian elephants both in wild and captive conditions.

Leanne Proops

University of Portsmouth

United Kingdom

Dr. Leanne Proops is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology, University of Portsmouth, UK. She studies the socio-cognitive abilities of domestic equids (horses, donkeys and mules) and is fascinated by the field of evolutionary thanatology. Her current projects include an exploration of domestic horse and feral donkey responses to the carcasses and bones of their species.

Claudia Stephan

Friedrich-Alexander University

Germany

Dr. Claudia Stephan is a lecturer and researcher at the Department of Biology at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. Her research primarily focuses on the evolution and the development of vocal communication and cognition in forest guenons. Dr. Stephan recently added topics on the behaviour and underlying cognitive capacities in forest elephants and gorillas in their natural habitats to her research portfolio. She is particularly interested in how highly social species respond to deceased conspecifics and what kind of (contextual) information is inferred during such encounters.

Qian Sun

Louisiana State University

USA

Dr. Qian “Karen” Sun is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Entomology at Louisiana State University. Her research centers on the chemical and behavioral ecology of social insects, with a primary emphasis on termites. Her earlier investigations have delved into the behavioral responses of termites to dead conspecifics and the mechanisms of death recognition. Additionally, she has contributed to the field with two review papers on corpse management in social insects. She remains interested in the intriguing research topic of evolutionary thanatology.