Regina Luizão, Soil Scientist, National Institute for Research in the Amazon

Photo credit: Carrie Vonderhaar

Regina Luizão earned a Ph.D. in Ecology from Stirling University (United Kingdom) in 1994. Since 1992, she has held the position of soil scientist in the Department of Ecology at the National Institute for Research in the Amazon (INPA). As such, she has led several scientific projects in Amazonia, including one that created an extensive grid of trails throughout the Ducke Nature Reserve in Brazil, paving the way for an intensive study on several aspects of the forest dynamic. In January 2004, she was appointed scientific coordinator of the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragmentation Project (BDFFP), a cooperative project between the INPA and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Initiated in 1980, the BDFFP is the longest-running study on the ecological impacts of rainforest fragmentation, which can result in loss of species.