Biography

Duarte started his PhD in February, 2018, at the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales. In the past seven years Duarte has collaborated in a variety of projects and institutions in the UK and Brazil, from research to climate consultancy, about climate change in Brazil. He is particularly interested in climate extreme events and effective solutions to mitigate and/or adapt to the new risks these pose in a changing anthropogenic environment. His PhD will focus on changes in heat exchange between land-surface and the atmosphere, namely between vegetation and extreme temperatures. This research aims particularly to test the contribution from reforestation of South American native forest biomes (such as Amazonia) as a positive anthropogenic mechanism to mitigate heat extremes. Through a combination of land-surface and high resolution climate modelling tools, this PhD aims to not only further the understanding of land-atmosphere heat exchange during extreme events but also in testing the potential to positively use such strong coupling as a climate engineering tool to mitigate heat extremes under a globally warming climate.