20 Years of the Brazil Office: Reflections from Brian Farrell, Former DRCLAS Director

In this interview, Professor Brian Farrell, DRCLAS Faculty Director from 2014 to 2020, reflects on a period marked by fruitful engagement and meaningful impact at the Brazil Office during his tenure. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Looking back at your tenure as DRCLAS Director, what are three words that best summarize the evolution of Harvard’s presence in Brazil?

Multidisciplinary, Prolific, and Impactful.

A core mission of the Brazil Office is to maintain a physical presence in-country. How does that local infrastructure shape the way Harvard faculty pursue research in Brazil?

The Brazil Office serves both as an anchor for faculty pursuing research in Brazil and as a launching pad for faculty new to the country.

For example, in 2015, the Brazil Office coordinated the logistics and assembly of a set of USP and Harvard faculty for an international symposium that catalyzed several new collaborations funded by the US National Science Foundation and FAPESP. That experience was a model for the next ten years of productive exchange and research in the sciences, and launched new, sustained faculty engagement in Brazil. And this is only one of many cases.

The Lemann Brazil Research Fund (LBRF) has become a cornerstone of the Harvard-Brazil ecosystem. As a faculty member who has received this support, how have the Fund and the Brazil Office’s local presence expanded what was possible for your field research in Brazil, compared with working from Cambridge alone?  

The Lemann Brazil Research Fund has allowed me to build a research project to probe the genetic basis of mosquito adaptations for survival in the small pockets of water that accumulate inside tropical plants like bamboo, gingers and bromeliads.

With Lemann funds for the cutting-edge genomics lab work, I could leverage two postdoctoral positions, one funded by a Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) Fellowship awarded to Brazilian mosquito expert and researcher, Dr. Paulino Ribeiro, and another awarded by Seoul National University to Dr. Sangil Kim, one of my former Ph.D. students at Harvard. The DRCLAS office in Sao Paulo helped with connections and logistics, galvanizing my research projects beyond the Spanish-speaking countries.

These combined strengths of expertise onsite in Brazil, the detailed knowledge of Harvard, combined with efficient and proactive administration are the magic that makes, in productivity and impact, the Brazil Office the leading Harvard international office in the world.

A striking example of recent multidisciplinary work is the "Pantanal Sounds" research expedition. How does a project like this — blending acoustic science, biodiversity, and local knowledge — reflect the Brazil Office’s role in bringing Brazilian perspectives into global academic conversations?

The Brazil Office was the catalyst for this initiative, by introducing me to the remarkably talented Music Professor, Dr. William Teixera of the Universidad Federal of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS), while he was a visiting Fulbright Scholar hosted at the Harvard Music Department by Dr. Hans Tuschta, allowing a flawless field expedition uniquely positioned at the interface of music, science and biodiversity expertise to happen.

It was instrumental and absolutely key to developing the logistics of this research project in the Pantanal; from Professor William Teixera base at UFMS, we traveled with UFMS students and Harvard students and Brazilian researchers to the UFMS field station for recording the endangered fauna, guided by the local experts there. We now understand that music is biology that became art, and evolved first in early humans as a means of social cohesion. This has recently become an active and exciting area of research worldwide at the interface of art and science and social science, the very most integrative and interdisciplinary research area that I know.

The Brazil Office also introduced me to excellent colleagues in science and music at the  ICTP South American Institute for Fundamental Research (ICTP-SAIFR) of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics and the São Paulo State University. I was thrilled to be able to give a colloquium and meet with them to discuss research at this interface of Art and Science.

In what ways has your engagement with Brazilian researchers and local environments influenced the way you teach or think about your discipline at Harvard?

Every Brazilian biology student I have met in Brazil or at Harvard has had a rare combination of training in field biology and the supporting quantitative background that is absolutely essential for the bringing the latest molecular and computational approaches to study of biodiversity in the field. These students also have passion, an esprit du corps, and a balanced approach to their lives in research that makes a life in academia worthwhile.  

As the Brazil Office celebrates its first 20 years, what major research milestone would you hope to see it celebrating a decade from now? And what message would you offer faculty members just beginning to engage with Brazil?

I am very excited by what I see coming as the future of the Brazil Office and Harvard. The present trajectory is a steep upward climb in interdisciplinary research and engagement across the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities.

I hope that the next ten-year celebration will see milestones in several areas; in my area, we expect to have the broad integration of genomics in basic and applied research for both environmental and health sciences in Brazil, led by Brazil-Harvard teams. I also see an AI-assisted leap ahead in technology, and real-time reporting on public health, agriculture, and environmental/social concerns.

I would continue to advise Harvard faculty both newly arrived and already established to look to DRCLAS’s Brazil Studies Program for exciting new opportunities to engage their interests in research and education in Brazil.

Open Comments: Is there anything else you would like to say about the Brazil Office?

I would like to add that the key to this success is in the effective leadership of the Brazil Office by Executive Director Helena Monteiro, and the remarkable staff, headed by Tim Linden, fueled by the generous support of the extremely dedicated Brazil Advisory Board.

This leadership has made Harvard one of the six top universities worldwide that together lead global engagement of their faculty and students in research, education and local partnerships. Within this global network of independent collaborative institutions lies our hope for a sustainable and fulfilling future.