The Future of Amazonia in Brazil

Marcílio de Freitas has been a Professor of the Department of Physics at the Federal University of Amazonas since 1978. He established and organized the Centre for Higher Studies of the Humid Tropic at the University of the Amazonas State. de Freitas was State Secretary of Science and Technology at the State of Amazonas, Brazil between 2007 and 2010. He coordinated the deployment of several scientific programmes in Amazonia. He has published books and scientific articles on science education, philosophy and sociology of sciences, environmental physics and policies of development in Brazilian Amazonia. de Freitas earned his Bachelor in Physics. from the University of Brasilia, and Master in Applied Physics from the University of São Paulo. He did research internships at the Oxford University (1995), England, and UNESCO (1999-2000), Paris.

Marilene Corrêa da Silva Freitas is Professor of the Department of Social Sciences at the Federal University of Amazonas since 1979. She recieved her PhD in sociology from the University of Campinas at the São Paulo State and did her postdoctoral studies in University of Caen at the France. Marilene Corrêa has coordinated international and national committees on management and evaluation of policies for education and research from Amazonia. She was president of the Association Francophone Internationale de Recherche Scientifique en Education (AFIRSE) Brazilian section until 2012 and Rector of the University at the State of Amazonas from 2007 to 2010. She was coordinator of the postgraduate program "Society and Culture in Amazonia" at the Federal University of Amazonas. She has published books and articles on sociology of education, international relations, and the processes of globalization in national and international journals. She has also published scientific articles on worldwide issues, articulated to Amazonian themes.