Instructor Biographies
Virgílio Viana
Virgílio graduated Forest Engineering at the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture (ESALQ-USP) and holds a PhD in evolutionary biology from Harvard University. He conducted his post-doc in sustainable development at University of Florida. He was a professor in the Department of Forestry Sciences at ESALQ-USP (1989-2009), with dozens of books and hundreds of papers published both nationally and internationally. Professor Viana is one of Brazil's leading experts on forestry, environment and sustainable development. He served as Brazil's Secretary of State for Environment and Sustainable Development from 2003 to 2008, and is currently the Director General of the Amazonas Sustainability Foundation (FAS), an organization charged with the challenge of implementing the Bolsa Floresta Program, as well as providing the institutional framework to market environmental services of Amazonas' forests.
Thomas E. Lovejoy
Thomas E. Lovejoy was elected University Professor at George Mason University in March 2010. He previously held the Biodiversity Chair at the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment and was President from 2002-2008. An ecologist who has worked in the Brazilian Amazon since 1965, he works at the interface of science and environmental policy. Starting in the 1970s, he helped to bring attention to the issue of tropical deforestation and in 1980 published the first estimate of global extinction rates in the Global 2000 Report to the President. He conceived the idea for the long-term study on forest fragmentation in the Amazon, starting in 1978, which is the largest experiment in landscape ecology, the Minimum Critical Size of Ecosystems project (also known as the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project). Professor Lovejoy is credited with coining the term "Biological Diversity". He originated the concept of debt-for-nature swaps, and has researched the interaction between climate change and biodiversity for more than 30 years. He is the founder of the public television series, "Nature".
Peter May
Peter May graduated in Human Ecology from the Evergreen State College in 1974, and received his master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning in 1979 and his PhD in Natural Resource Economics in 1986, both from Cornell University. For the past 30 years, Peter has been teaching, researching and providing policy advice to governments and civil society organizations in Brazil and other developing countries on natural resource management, emphasizing forest conservation, management and restoration, and the valuation of ecosystem services. Currently, he is a Visiting Scholar at the Columbia University Center for Sustainable Development, on leave from his post as Full Professor in the Department of Development, Agriculture and Society at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro. He was founder and President of the Brazilian Society for Ecological Economics-ECOECO, and President of the International Society for Ecological Economics-ISEE. He has also served as Program Officer at the Ford Foundation and Forest Officer at the FAO.
Jeffrey D. Sachs
Jeffrey D. Sachs is a world-renowned professor of economics, leader in sustainable development, senior UN advisor, bestselling author, and syndicated columnist whose monthly newspaper columns appear in more than 100 countries. He is the co-recipient of the 2015 Blue Planet Prize, the leading global prize for environmental leadership. He has twice been named among Time Magazine's 100 most influential world leaders. A recent survey by The Economist ranked Professor Sachs as among the world's three most influential living economists of the past decade.
Rita Mesquita
Rita Mesquita has a degree in Biological Sciences from UFMG, a masters degree in Ecology from INPA - National Institute of Amazonian Research, and a PhD in Ecosystem Ecology from the Institute of Ecology at the University of Georgia. Currently, Professor Mesquita is a member of the research team at INPA and has experience in the field of ecology with emphasis on management of degraded areas. Between 2004 and 2008, she was Deputy Secretary of Environmental Management of the Secretariat of Environment and Sustainable Development in the State of Amazonas. Between 2008 and 2012, she was one of the coordinators of the Botanical Garden of Manaus and director-technician of the Museum of the Amazon. Currently, she coordinates INPA's masters program in Management of Protected Areas in the Amazon.
Emma Torres
Emma Torres is a senior advisor on sustainability of the PNUD in Latin America and the Caribbean. She has more than 20 years of experience in the UN. She coordinated a strategic initiative in the LAC region called "The Superpower Biodiversity". Ms. Torres currently serves as the director of the Regional Program for LAC and as UNDP/GEF's Deputy Executive Coordinator, a partnership between PNUD, PNUMA, and the World Bank. She serves as a Leadership Council member at the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), and in that capacity, works on advancing two major initiatives: SDSN Amazon and Rio: A Sustainable City. She holds a masters degree in Economics from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and holds degrees in Environmental Economics and Climate Change from IIED - Harvard University.