Selected works

The Collapse of Insects

Data journalism

On the brink

Data journalism

Bats and the origin of outbreaks

Data journalism

All the ways to make bubble tea

Data storytelling, User-driven story

Mangoes in Taiwan

Data storytelling

Taiwan's Lunar New Year

Data storytelling

Taiwan's 43 Olympic medals

Data storytelling

Foreign narratives proliferate among Japanese X communities

Network analysis, topic modelling

Olympic Data Portraits 2024

Data Art, Interactive DataViz

Putin War With NATO Would Cost the World $1.5 Trillion

Data journalism

After Gold and Diamonds, Russia Turns to Africa’s Trove of Fish

Data journalism

Ukraine Rebuilds Its Energy Grid With Lessons From the Frontline

Data journalism

The World's Best Hope to Beat Climate Change is Vanishing

Data-driven story

Silicon Valley is Coming for the Pentagon's $1 Trillion Budget

Data-driven story

Private Hospitals Are Helping the NHS Cut Wait Times

Data-driven story

A lifetime of change

Data journalism, User-driven story

More pets than children

Data journalism

How to get America vaccinated?

Data journalism

Selected work AFP: natural disasters

Data journalism

Selected work AFP: current affairs

Data journalism

Selected work AFP: science / tech

Data journalism

Selected work AFP: climate / env

Data journalism

Selected work AFP: fires

Data journalism

Selected work AFP: Olympics

Data journalism

Taiwan’s 10 most popular street foods

Data storytelling

The climate crisis and Latin American hydropower

Exploratory tool, Interactive map

Planetary Portal

Exploratory tool, Web development

Wild otters - threatened & traded

Data journalism

Opioid Use Disorder tool

Exploratory tool, Web development

Web map: antmaps.org

Exploratory tool, Web development

Interactive Visulization Scorched Earth

Interactive storytelling, Data Viz

Interactive Visualization: The Parrot Trade

Interactive storytelling

Visualizing shark numberes

Interactive Storytelling

Illegal otter trade seizures

Exploratory tool, Interactive map / dataviz

Mapping the wonders of the underwater world

Exploratory tool, Interactive map

The Climate Crisis in the Sahel

Data storytelling, Humanitarian

More than monkey business

Data journalism

Interactive map: Chinese Investments in Soy / Beef

Exploratory tool, Interactive map

VR: Ant Museum

Virtual Reality, Education

Interactive bat fact wheel

Data visualization

Infographics: Illuminating dark fishing fleets in North Korea

Infographics, Design

Animated GIF: North Korean Fishing Vessels

Data Viz, Animation

Remote sensing: Cyclone Idai Flood mapping

Remote sensing, Classification

Satellite Image Panchromatic sharpening

Remote Sensing, Photoshop

Primitive Weevils of Wisconsin

Taxonomy, Survey, Conservation

Selected reports I contributed to

Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2023

Startup Genome

Global Landscape of Climate Finance 2021

Climate Policy Initiative

Data Matters 4

UNODC

Covid-19 response toolkit

UNESCO

No Return to Normal: The Growing Humanitarian Climate Emergency

UN-OCHA

The Rosewood Racket

Environmental Investigation Agency

Some things I do

Data Visualization & Data Journalism

I enjoy finding insights from data and telling stories. I use D3 for a lot of my work along with many other tools such as R, python, QGIS, canvas and recently also D3 + Svelte. I also completed two motion graphics courses at School of Motion. Right now I'm focused on illustration and Blender.

Some of my more notable work include the biodiversity series I worked on with Reuters Graphics, which won the SND 44'th edition world's best design in digital and also 2nd place for the SEJ 22nd Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment.

I also started a platform, The Tardigrade, to use data-driven interactive stories to raise awareness for different species. A story on sharks made it to the IIBA 2019 Shortlist. Then I started another project Taiwan Data Stories with Daisy Chung to show some interesting data-driven / visual aspects of Taiwanese culture. The boba story won the Pudding Cup 2022, and three got long-listed at IIBA. Few of our stories were used as example's in Andy Kirk's Visualising Data book. Our other vaccine story got short-listed.

I try to document my process when I can, see my personal github page and TDS github page

Finally, for more information (a bit outdated), here is a link to an interview conducted by Kontinentalist.

Conservation & Environmental Sciences

A lot of my work is motivated by biodiversity / environmental conservation. I have conducted research on topics such as beetle taxonomy (Nemonychidae + Anthribidae of Wisconsin, Attelabidae of Wisconsin), illegal wildlife trade, and burned-area mapping for reforestation.

In 2019, I received the Cocos Island Conservation Scholarship from Turtle Island Restoration Network to go on a diving trip to Cocos island to assist the science team.

I worked at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology at a biodiversity / biocomplexity lab for four years, where I worked on science communication, created tools to help scientists (such as antmaps.org), and helped with scientific publications. I also created tools for other scientists at the institution: Here are a couple of maps on coral dispersal network as well as high sea connectivity I built for marine biologists.

I have also done a lot of environmental outreach for educational purposes. I received a grant from the US Department of State and started the Educational Artshow Fundraiser series in Okinawa. I also enjoy creating educational pieces to raise awareness for environmental issues, such as Parrot Plights: The Pet Trade & Habitat Loss for The Tardigrade.

Maps & exploratory / geovisualization tools

I have taken many cartography courses at UW-Madison (the whole curriculum) and often work on many static and interactive mapping projects, some of which are exploratory tools, such as antmaps.org and the illegal otter seizure map , some for scietists, some for activism / education, others for policy makers.

I also created many maps using Mapbox for China Dialogue to accompany their articles, such as one on the hydro power plants in Latin America.

In 2019, I received my second M.S. in Environmental Observation & Informatics, where I did a lot of spatial analysis using GIS and remote sensing for various purposes, such as classifying satellimate images and conducting change detection, more specifically I've classified palm oil plantations, mapped floods, mapped burned areas, detected individual houses, and mapped urban areas.

International affairs & policy

I worked with UNESCO's Education Policy team for a year as a communication specialist, where I also got to work on topics related to the right to education and education in the context of climate displacement.

Later on, I worked as a consultant with UNDP, more specifically UN Volunteers, on a series of stories to communicate the importance of their work, specifically for a thematic meeting.

Finally, I also worked with UN-OCHA on a couple of different fronts. First as a data journalism fellow for the Centre for Humanitarian Data, where I fucsed on communicating the humanitarian consequences of climate change in the Sahel, where many countries are disproportionately vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Moreover, I worked as a consultant for OCHA to conduct quantitative data analysis and create visuals to further support the findings of a report on climate change.

List of papers

C. Liu et al. 2025 (Science): Genomic signatures indicate biodiversity loss in an endemic island ant fauna
J. Janicki & DK Young 2021 (Insecta Mundi): Survey of the Attelabidae of Wisconsin (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea)
S. Ross et al. 2019 (Journal of Animal Ecology): A test of trophic and functional island biogeography theory with the avifauna of a continental archipelago
RE Roth et al. 2018 (The Professional Geographer): Global Landscapes: Teaching Globalization through Responsive Mobile Map Design
J. Janicki & DK Young 2017 (Insecta Mundi): Nemonychidae and Anthribidae of Wisconsin (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea)
J. Janicki et al. 2016 (Ecological Informatics): Visualizing and interacting with large-volume biodiversity data using client–server web mapping applications: The design and implementation of antmaps.org
J. Janicki et al. 2014 (Journal of Maps): Weevil Viewer: An interactive mapping application for geographic and phenological exploration of Wisconsin’s primitive weevils

Talks / workshops / judging

Complexity Science Hub (Talk): Visualizing Complexity Science Workshop 2025 - Portable Principles: Clarity, Trust, Engagement and Connection (2025 August, in Vienna)
UW-Madison EOI program (Talk): Intro to data journalism and ethical considerations in data (2024 July, online)
Cognition (Panel): Storytelling in Complex World of Science and Health (2024 May, online)
Hymaia (Talk): Interactivity in Dataviz (2024 May, in Paris)
SND 45th competition (Judge): Link to judges (2024 May, in Minnesota)
ICRC Analysis & Evidence Unit (Workshop): Data visualization workshop (2024 May, in Geneva)
ICRC Museum (Workshop): Data visualization workshop (2024 March, in Geneva)
Data 2 Speak Awards (Jury): Link to awards (2023, online)
UN-SIAP (Talk): Data journalism, process, and tools deep-dive (2022 March, online)
Outlier Conference (Talk): Two heads are better than one: a collaborative data viz journey sparked by Outlier (2022 Feb, online)
Southern Navarene University Digital Humanities (Talk): Intro to data journalism (2021 Dec, online)
UN World Data Forum (Talk): Open-source tools for creating data viz & maps (2021 Oct, online)
Centre for Humanitarian Data (Talk): Data journalism fellowship showcase (2021 July, online)

Work experiences

  • 2024 Sept - PRESENT

    Bloomberg: Data reporter

  • 2022 September - 2024 August

    AFP: Data journalist

  • 2023 March - PRESENT

    Urban Institute: Dataviz Developer (freelance)

  • 2023 February - 2023 May

    Startup Genome: Data journalist (freelance)

  • 2022 April - 2023 January

    Stamen: Design Technologist (contract)

  • 2021 September - 2022 March

    UN-OCHA: Data Analysis & Visualization Consultant

  • 2021 June - August

    Centre for Humanitarian Data: Data Journalism Fellow

  • 2020 July - 2022 August

    Reuters: Data Journalist (Freelance)

  • 2020 March - PRESENT

    Climate Policy Initiative: Data Visualization Designer

  • 2020 February - 2021 June

    UNESCO: Communications Specialist

  • 2020 January - 2021 June

    Global Fishing Watch: Graphics Consultant

  • 2020 January - July

    United Nations Volunteers: Data Visualization Consultant

  • 2018 June - 2019 August

    UW Madison M.S. Environmental Observation and Informatics

  • 2017 July - 2019 May

    Environmental Investigation Agency: Data Visualization Consultant

  • 2015 November - April 2017

    Legal Atlas: GIS & Mapping Consultant (contract)

  • 2015 January- 2018 May

    OIST: Computing Technician. Okinawa, Japan.

  • May 2014

    M.S. Entomology, UW-Madison

  • Sept 2011- May 2014

    UW-Madison: Entomology Teaching Assistant

  • May 2010

    B.S. Conservation Biology, Japanese. UW-Madison

  • September 2008 - July 2009

    Japanese Language Program. Keio University, Tokyo, Japan

    JLPT Level 1