The Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) has been ranked by independent agencies among the top-five Brazilian Universities for decades. The University admits every year more than 6600 new undergraduate students in its 75 courses. In addition, there are over 7,000 post-graduate students in 68 courses, including both doctorate and MSc levels. The Department of Botany is responsible for the Plant Biology Post-graduation Program.

Network Partner Dr. Ary Oliveira-Filho has worked on Vegetation Ecology and Phytogeography of Tropical South America since 1980, with the main focus on SDTFs, Cerrado (woody savanna) and Atlantic Forests. His publications have contributed to clarify many floristic patterns across the continent and he has been working in a massive database (TreeAtlan) on tree species distribution. His long-time collaboration with the RBGE started in 1986, firstly with Dr. James Ratter, and has never been interrupted. This is why joining Toby Pennington in this network was more than a natural move.

After Dr. Ary Oliveira had retired, in 2018 Dr. Danilo Neves became the coordinator of the Brazilian group. Danilo is Professor of Vegetation Ecology  in UFMG and has extensive experience in macroecology and data analysis. He is leading the strong partnerships of Brazilian researchers to study the dry forests and contribute data and expertise in Dryflor:

Brazilian partnerts: