Amazon Researcher Alfredo Homma Visits the University of Florida
Left Photo: Alfredo Homma visits UF’s Center for Latin American Studies, where he met with leadership and students.
Right Photo: Alfredo Homma with Stephen Perz, chair of the UF Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law and a leading
researcher on Amazon development, infrastructure impacts and socio-ecological governance.
The University of Florida International Center welcomed renowned Brazilian researcher Alfredo Kingo Oyama Homma, Ph.D., during a recent visit to UF. An agricultural economist and one of Brazil's leading scholars of Amazonian development, Homma recently retired from Embrapa Amazônia Oriental after more than 50 years dedicated to research. He now devotes more of his time to teaching at the State University of Pará (UEPA).
Throughout his career, Homma has contributed extensively to understanding the economic and environmental dynamics shaping the Brazilian Amazon. His research spans natural resource economics, agricultural development, plant extractivism, and the sustainable use of Amazonian resources.
Alfredo Homma with Aghane “Agnes” Antunes, Global Research Engagement Coordinator
at the UF International Center, during his visit to UF.
Homma's visit to UF was both academic and personal. After decades of connections with researchers in Florida, he came to reconnect with longtime collaborators and colleagues, and to visit the UF campus in person. Aghane "Agnes" Antunes, Ph.D., Global Research Engagement Coordinator at the UF International Center, facilitated the visit.
The visit also highlighted a historical connection between UF and the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV), where Homma earned his Agronomy degree in 1970 and later completed his graduate training in Rural Economics. “UF has a special connection for me because of my history at Viçosa,” Homma said. “Peter Henry Rolfs came from the University of Florida to help establish the school that later became UFV. I studied there for many years, so I have always known about this connection. It was very meaningful to visit the University of Florida finally.”
More than a century ago, Rolfs, a UF agricultural scientist and administrator, traveled from Florida to Brazil to help establish the Escola Superior de Agricultura e Veterinária (ESAV), which eventually became UFV. A former dean of UF's College of Agriculture, Rolfs helped plan and organize the new institution and later served as its first director. His legacy remains visible at UFV, where the university's principal avenue bears his name. UF's George A. Smathers Libraries also preserves the Peter Henry Rolfs Collection, documenting his work in Florida and Brazil.
Homma’s visit provided an opportunity to renew relationships and celebrate the longstanding connections linking scholars and institutions in Florida and Brazil.