Today the foundation CAPES of the Brazilian Ministry of Education, announced the results of the 2014 edition of the CAPES awards for best PhD thesis defended in 2013. The PhD thesis of Acacio Navarrete on “Bacterial ecology in Amazonian soils under deforestation and agricultural management” was selected as best thesis in agro sciences I among 215 submissions.

Acacio Navarrete, winner of the CAPES Thesis Award 2014 in Agro Sciences

Acacio’s research was carried out 50% at University of São Paulo (CENA/USP) and 50% at Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO/KNAW) within the framework of a R&D project on bio-indicators for soil quality monitoring, supported jointly by FAPESP BIOEN and BE-Basic.

This award will give distinction to the promoter Tsai Siu Mui (CENA/USP), co-promoters Hans van Veen (NIOO/KNAW) and Eiko Kuramae (NIOO/KNAW) and to the related postgraduate program of the University of São Paulo (CENA/USP). The award consists of travel budget for the award ceremony, of certificates for the promoter, the post-graduate program in which the work took place and of the course for the thesis author, of R$ 3000 budget for the promoter for congress participation, and of 3-year Postdoc scholarship for the author of the thesis.
The official ceremony will take place on December 10, at CAPES headquarters in Brasilia, Brazil.