Jean was born in Rio de Janeiro but grew up in Brazil’s capital, Brasília at a time when the Cerrado was still a wild frontier.  Jean’s interests are in ecology (tropical), behavior, biogeography and conservation with a focus on primates and their forest habitats.

Most of his research has been in the Brazilian Amazonia and Atlantic Forest, but he has also conducted short-term projects in Panama, Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia (Sumatra).

 
Education:  Jean was educated in Brazil at the University of Brasilia, where he obtained a BSc in Biology (1989) and in the USA at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was awarded a PhD in Anthropology (1997). The topic of his dissertation was the behavior and ecology of the black uakari monkey, Cacajao hosomi in the remote Pico da Neblina National Park, Amazonas, Brazil.

Professional Experience:  After completing his PhD, Jean became a visiting researcher at the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1998, 1999), and later, a visiting scholar at the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, as an Alexander von Humboldt fellow (2000/2001). 

From 2002 to 2005, he was a post-doc of the Zoological Society of San Diego, USA working on the ecology and conservation of the last viable population of the critically endangered northern muriqui monkey, Brachyteles hypoxanthus, of Caratinga Biological Station, Minas Gerais, Brazil.   After his post-doc he joined the faculty of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand where he was a Senior Lecturer for 3 years before joining WCS Brazil in 2008.

Contact Us

Wildlife Conservation Society Brazil - WCS Brazil
Rua Jardim Botânico 674/sala 210
Rio de Janeiro, RJ 22461-000 Brazil
Phone/Fax: (+55) (21) 2259-2989
Email: wcsbrasil@wcs.org