Amintas is a Brazilian environmental engineer with a Doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Environment and Resources. Dr. Brandão Jr. has nearly two decades of experience in the field of land change science. He worked at Imazon for many years (2003-2016), leading research projects to promote conservation and sustainable development in the Amazon. Since 2016, he has been leading studies on cattle supply chains in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado biomes in collaboration with Dr. Gibbs. Amintas has published dozens of influential papers and reports on deforestation and conservation in the Amazon, with many others in preparation. He is a strong scholar and advocates for science and conservation in Brazil. His main areas of interest are traceability, land change modeling, greenhouse gas emissions, and programming.