Fabrício Rodrigues dos Santos

Residency period: March 3 to December 31, 2025

Department of Genetics, Ecology and Evolution – Institute of Biological Sciences of UFMG

Fabrício R. Santos is a full professor at UFMG in Belo Horizonte, MG, a biologist and geneticist with a PhD in 1995 from UFMG, post-doctorates in 1997 from the University of Oxford, UK, and in 2008 from the National Geographic Society and University of Pennsylvania, USA. He is a resident professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies (IEAT) of UFMG, a full member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and a guest member of the Ibero-American Academy of Evolutionary Biology (AIBE). He was a consultant for the Genetics Advisory Committee of CNPq between 2012 and 2015. He was president of the Brazilian Society of Genetics between 2014 and 2016. He was Director of the Center for Taxonomic Collections of UFMG between 2015 and 2019. He is a Visiting Professor at the Universidad San Martin de Porres in Lima, Peru. He has published several articles in specialized and popular science journals, chapters, and books. He is an accredited advisor in the Postgraduate programs in Genetics, Zoology and Ecology, Conservation and Management of Wildlife at UFMG, and has also advised students in the Bioinformatics, Biochemistry and Animal Science programs at UFMG. He currently coordinates research projects funded by national and international government and private agencies, including the National Institute of Science and Technology IN2PAST.BR, whose theme covers research into Brazil’s natural and cultural heritage. He works mainly in the area of natural history and biological evolution using DNA and population genetics analyses, phylogeography and phylogeny applied to Brazilian biodiversity and the history of the human species.

SCIENCE OF BRAZILIAN NATURAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE

Research and safeguarding of natural and cultural heritage are essential activities for understanding and valuing the material and immaterial assets of our country. Heritage Science connects the natural and human sciences in the characterization, experimentation, analysis, registration, documentation, conservation, monitoring and sustainable use of these assets resulting from the 4.6 billion years of evolutionary history of the Earth and the creativity and history of the various generations of humans who arrived in Brazil at least 12 thousand years ago. This proposal is presented by the coordinator of a transdisciplinary and multi-institutional team composed of researchers from different areas of academic knowledge who came together to create a National Institute of Science and Technology in 2024, headquartered at UFMG, IN2PAST.BR. During the residency period at IEAT, the first transdisciplinary research projects planned in the subprojects approved by the INCT Management Board at the end of 2024 will be implemented and the scientific communication and dissemination platform will be developed, which in addition to a page and media channels, will also include the creation of a magazine specialized in Natural and Cultural Heritage.