Juliana Machado Ferreira

Juliana Machado Ferreira (São Paulo, 1980) is a Brazilian scientist, a conservation geneticist, and an activist against wildlife trafficking. She is a founding member and current executive director of Freeland Brasil (the South American branch of the Freeland Foundation), whose mission is "to conserve biodiversity by ending wildlife trafficking" through the combination of scientific research, education and awareness, and public policy. She is a TED Senior Fellow.

Biography and early career

Juliana Machado Ferreira was born in São Paulo (Brazil). She completed a BSc Biological Sciences, MSc and PhD Biology (Genetics) at the University of São Paulo.

Contributions Juliana started as a TED Fellow in 2009 and later became a TED Senior Fellow. She collaborated with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Forensics Laboratory from 2005 to 2013, was a 2014 National Geographic Emerging Explorer and received the 2016 WINGS Courage Award from the organization WINGS WorldQuest.

In this way, she aims to establish an independent laboratory in Brazil for high quality forensic analyses on wildlife crime evidence for all South American countries.