Professor Philip Fearnside

National Institute for Research in the Amazon

Philip Fearnside is a Research Professor in the Department of Ecology at the National Institute for Research in the Amazon (INPA) in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. He is a permanent resident in Brazil where he has lived in Amazonia for over 30 years doing ecological research. He also has field experience in India, Indonesia, and China. He received his Ph.D. in 1978 from the University of Michigan. Fearnside's research since 1974 has focused on estimating the human carrying capacity of tropical agro-ecosystems, and studying the impacts of infrastructure, development projects, and government policies on Amazonian forests. He has authored over 350 publications on these and related problems of environment and development. His honors include Brazil's National Ecology Prize, the UN Global 500 award, the Conrad Wessel prize, the Chico Mendes prize and membership in the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. In 2006 he was identified by Thompson-ISI as the world’s second most-cited scientist on the subject of global warming.