Visiting Fellows
| Paulo Brando, Ph.D. Distinguished Visiting Scientist |
|
| Dr. Brando is an ecologist whose research explores the vulnerability of tropical forests to repeated disturbances and prolonged degradation. He aims to inform the public and policy-makers about the potential negative effects of climate and land use change on the future of Amazonian forests. In his research, Dr. Brando uses field manipulation experiments, statistical and dynamic models and remote sensing techniques. Dr. Brando received a bachelor's degree in Forest Engineering from the University of São Paulo (2003) and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Ecology from the University of Florida (2010). He has worked with the Amazon Environmental Research Institute
(IPAM) and collaborated with the Woods Hole Research Center since 2003.
|
|
| Andrea Cattaneo, Ph.D. Distinguished Visiting Scientist |
 |
| Dr. Cattaneo is an economist whose research focuses on the economics of tropical deforestation, in particular linking economy-wide models of drivers of deforestation to geographic information systems. He has experience in analyzing the design of payment programs for ecosystem services, the role of monitoring on program performance, and the use of environmental indices in the context of multi-objective decision-making when monetary valuation estimates are not available. Before joining the Center, Dr. Cattaneo worked for the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the Economic Research Service (ERS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). He obtained a Master of Science in Engineering (M.S.E.) in electrical engineering at the University of Pavia (Italy), and from Johns Hopkins University he received a second M.S.E. in Environmental Systems Analysis and his Ph.D. in Economics and Systems Analysis.
|
|
| Daniel C. Nepstad, Ph.D. Distinguished Visiting Scientist |
|
| Dr. Nepstad is a tropical ecologist whose research has focused on the response of Amazon forests to climate change, fire, and land use. In 1998, he developed the Amazon Scenarios program, which simulates the future of the Amazon under a range of policy scenarios. He led the Center’s Amazon Program and REDD initiative (focused on bringing tropical forests into the UN climate treaty) until mid-2008, when he spent a year in environmental philanthropy. Dr. Nepstad returned to the Center to work on a global land-use strategy that lowers greenhouse gas emissions, with an initial focus on the Amazon and Brazil. He was founding president of the Center’s main partner in Brazil (IPAM) and co-founder of both Aliança da Terra and the international Roundtable on Responsible Soy (RTRS).
|
|
| Rebecca Phillips, Ph.D. Distinguished Visiting Scientist |
 |
| Dr. Phillips is an ecosystem biogeochemist who studies factors influencing the exchange of trace gas between soils, plants and the atmosphere. Her work currently emphasizes carbon and nitrogen cycling in grasslands, croplands and wetlands in the US Northern Great Plains. Dr. Phillips uses field and remote sensing-based data to estimate fluxes from plot to landscape scales. Recent collaborative work at the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia (supported by the international Organization for Economic Development), resulted in development of new techniques for measurement of 15N -N2O (nitrous oxide). Current collaborations with the WHRC include study of N2O in agriculture using continuous wave quantum cascade laser and effects of land use change on soil carbon in the Prairie Pothole Region. Dr. Phillips earned a M.S. in Interdisciplinary Studies in Ecology at Colorado State University and a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
|
|
| Sudeep Samanta, Ph.D. Distinguished Visiting Scientist |
 |
| Dr. Samanta's present research addresses the processes of water and carbon exchange between forests and the atmosphere, as well as human impact on these processes through land use. He uses statistical methods to integrate scientific knowledge and observations in building and testing numerical models of complex natural systems. One of his main interests is proper estimation and conveyance of uncertainties in model results for science and policy use. He received his M.S. in remote sensing and GIS and his Ph.D. in forestry from the University of Wisconsin.
|
|
| Richard S. Williams, Jr., Ph.D. Adjunct Senior Scientist |
|
| Dr. Williams is a research geologist who uses airborne and satellite remote sensing to monitor changes in the Earth's glaciers (particularly sensitive indicators of global warming). He is author of more than 200 books, papers, and maps. He holds a doctorate in geology from Penn State, is a fellow of the AAAS, the Geological Society of America, and a foreign fellow of the Icelandic Science Society. Two glaciers in Antarctica are named for him. He is Vice Chairman Emeritus, Committee for Research and Exploration, National Geographic Society, and senior scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey.
|
|
| Portraits by Gigi Gatewood. | |
