Forest, Field, and Fallow

Dr. Antoinette M.G.A. WinklerPrins is the Deputy Division Director of the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences in the Directorate of Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). Prior to becoming the Deputy Division Director, she was a Program Director of the Geography and Spatial Sciences program in the division she now directs. She holds a Ph.D. in geography, with a minor in soil science, from the University of Wisconsin,Madison, and a Master's in urban planning and Bachelor's in geography from the University of Michigan. Dr. WinklerPrins' academic research has focused on environmental knowledge systems, smallholder agriculture, agrobiodiversity, livelihoods, and sustainable livelihoods in urban and rural areas of developing countries. Much of her research has been conducted in the Brazilian Amazon, but she has also been involved in research projects in Kenya, Mexico, and the U.S.A. She has investigated networksof agrobiodiversity maintenance and has looked at how Amazonian Dark Earths (fertile anthropogenic soils) were created in the past, how they may be recreated in the future, and their implication for conservation and development for the Amazon region. Prior to joining NSF Dr. WinklerPrins was on the faculty of Michigan State University's Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences and continues to serve as adjunct faculty at Johns Hopkins University.