text: Maria Aparecida de Freitas
Australian ecologist William E. Magnusson recently released his autobiographical book “The Eye of the Crocodile” . In an interview with ((o)) eco, he talks about the work, about the motivations for becoming a researcher and shares with us his views on “citizen science” and scientific dissemination as tools for social and cultural change in Brazil. Magnusson has been working since 1979 as a professor at the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA), where he has been a central figure in the training of new Brazilian biologists and in the development of projects. Under his coordination, the Biodiversity Research Program for the Western Amazon (PPBIO-AmOc), one of INPA's broadest, in the past 12 years has become one of the most fruitful sources of discoveries about the Amazon rainforest and its species. For Magnusson, one of the great challenges is to transform scientific knowledge into public policies and changes in culture. He defends the importance of people experiencing and being sensitive to the beings and ecosystems that they need to conserve.