Felipe Pacheco, PhD

I am an ecologist interested in interdisciplinary research that focuses on exploring feasible alternatives to support the transition to a sustainable future. I received my Ph.D. from the Earth System Science Center of the National Institute for Space Research in Brazil. As a scientist motivated by researching the water-energy-food nexus, my work is centered around the following question: “how to ensure water, energy, and food security in the future under the increasing demand for natural resources and climate change?”

As an Eric & Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell, my work focuses on:

​

1) using AI and remote sensing tools to identify how hydropower expansion can meet future energy needs in a climate-resilient manner, while reducing its adverse impacts on river ecosystems, and;

2) advancing environmentally and economically sustainable food production systems in the Amazon Basin, by modeling aquaculture expansion to locations that avoid deforestation, minimize carbon emissions, and protect biodiversity while enhancing food security.

The common thread running through these projects is the use of advanced computational approaches to tackle sustainability challenges around spatial planning at scales ranging from local watersheds in the Amazon Basin to regional and global analyses of biodiversity conservation and renewable energy deployment.