Chieko Umetsu received MA in International relations from the International University of Japan, PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She has worked at the East West Center, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kobe University, Research Institute of Humanity and Nature (RIHN), and is currently a professor in the Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University. Her fields of specialization are resournce and environmental economics, development economics and applied micro economics. She conducts research on resource use and social organization in agricultural areas. She has conducted research in rural communities in Asia and Africa, at the interface of rural development, water resource management and climate resilience. At RIHN, She was a project leader of “Vulnerability and Resilience of Social-Ecological Systems” and engaged in transdisciplinary project research. She is currently a board member of the Society for Environmental Politics and Policy Studies and The Japanese Society of Regional and Agricultural Development, and a International Scientific Committee member of the World Water Congress XVII scheduled in 2020 in Korea.