Program Overview
The graduate school
Goals
Main goal
The UFV’s Postgraduate Program in Forest Science (PPGCF) has as its general objective the training of human resources of excellence, who will act as transforming agents and multipliers of knowledge in the forestry sector, enabling them to carry out teaching, research and to have an entrepreneurial vision, as well as to act in the formation of elements that contribute to the strengthening of the forest sector chain.
The objectives of the PPGCF are in line with the Strategic Plan of the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV) to become an institution of excellence, becoming a reference in all fields of knowledge, constantly demanding the improvement and strengthening of policies research and postgraduate courses.
Specific objectives
The specific objectives are:
– Support and strengthen scientific initiation programs as trainers for future researchers.
– Modernize and rationalize administrative academic resources for a more transparent and efficient management.
– Strongly support the training of PPGCF professors at the post-doctoral level. The training and continuous improvement of professors are institutional goals that aim to give the PPGCF all the credentials to be a reference in the forestry sector in Brazil and to align itself with the most advanced countries in the world.
– Maintain a highly qualified faculty, laboratories equipped with modern state-of-the-art instruments.
– Maintain strategic partnerships with other departments and institutions in Brazil and abroad, which guarantee the carrying out of research that can help in the country’s development.
– Encourage institutional partnerships with developing countries, in international cooperation programs, enabling the training and qualification of future professionals who will act as multiplying and transforming agents in their countries. In this vein, the UFV and the PPGCF go beyond their mission to not only train professionals, but also to train new professionals who will be able to work in the academic and research areas of their countries.
– Develop technologically-based scientific research of strategic interest to Brazilian forestry companies.
– Support the Sociedade de Investigações Florestais, which is an important institution that works in synergy with the PPGCF, since the Government of the State of Minas Gerais and companies from different sectors of the forestry segment express their demands and collaborate technically and financially for the feasibility of research. Such partnerships help to consolidate the graduate program, strengthening it and feeding it back with projects, which result in dissertations and theses, in tune with emerging and current issues in the situations raised.
– Encourage the participation of professors and researchers from other teaching and research institutions in the PPGCF dissertation/thesis defense boards.
– Continuously encourage the increase of publications by professors and students in high-impact international scientific journals.
– Increase the internationalization of its activities, seeking partnerships, agreements, exchanges of students and professors and carrying out publications, with the participation of professors and researchers from foreign institutions.
Such situations place the UFV and the Graduate Program as reference points in the national and international scenario, giving them the necessary visibility to be a respected institution and opinion makers in the academic and scientific community, as well as in the various sectors of the segment productive.
The continuous and bold intellectual improvement of its professors also guarantees benefits for the Graduate Course in Forestry Engineering at UFV. Of the 24 permanent professors at the PPGCF, in 2020, 14 are CNPq researchers (research productivity fellows). The lines of research are structured in order to make the Masters and Doctoral courses compatible, as well as to meet the growing demand for scientific and technological knowledge.
The faculty is made up, in its entirety, of professors with a doctorate degree. In this way, even on the orientation committees and on the dissertation/thesis defense boards, all professors have at least a doctorate. Several professors already have post-doctoral degrees in foreign universities, of various nationalities.
GRADUATE PROFILE
Graduates of the Postgraduate Program in Forest Science (PPGCF) have worked in the most diverse activities, with emphasis on academic areas and the industrial sector, acting as professors at higher education institutions in the country and also as CEOs, directors and managers of several Brazilian and foreign forest companies. Available data show the existence of 74 (sixty-four) Forest Engineering schools in the country, including public and private institutions. More recently, technical schools (Federal Institutes of Education) have emerged, which have numerous remaining teachers from the UFV Post-Graduate Program in Forest Science. They were trained and qualified by the Program and now act as multiplying agents in more than a hundred schools across the country. To demonstrate these magnitudes,
Several PPGCF graduates are found in federal and state institutions, such as EMBRAPA, IEF, SEMAD and several research and development institutes in the country.
Several PPGCF graduates have dedicated themselves to the productive sector. Many work in the private sector, whether in industry, management companies, consulting and or set up their own companies in the traditional way or startups.
In the productive sector, the performance of the PPGCF is of outstanding importance due to the significant participation of the sector in the national economy, which today is in line with the most advanced countries in the world, standing out for its competitiveness in quality and productivity in all segments of the productive sector. The technologies generated by the companies resulted in expressive gains, making Brazil a leader in the sector, thanks, among other factors, to the products of research carried out through our Graduate Program.
Historic
The Postgraduate Program in Forest Science belongs to the University of Viçosa (UFV). UFV is considered one of the best universities in the country and, since its creation, it has invested in three basic pillars for its consolidation and success: teaching, research and extension. In addition, the first School of Forestry Engineering in Brazil began in Viçosa, Minas Gerais, through the creation of the Escola Nacional de Florestas, on May 5, 1960, which was supported by the FAO. The existence of dozens of Forest Engineering schools in the country and thousands of trained professionals is due to the pioneering spirit of the institution that saw the need for technological development in the forest sector in Brazil.
In March 1975, with its infrastructure in place and with a qualified faculty trained in foreign universities, as well as well-equipped laboratories, UFV started the Postgraduate Program in Forest Science (PPGCF), obtaining its accreditation in the Federal Council of Education on November 6, 1986.
At that time, the training of teachers became possible thanks to agreements with North American universities, mainly with Purdue University and North Carolina State University, which allowed teacher exchanges, sometimes training Brazilian teachers, sometimes sending American teachers who were willing to teaching the first subjects and setting up the laboratories, defining the Program’s first lines of research. Subsequently, the University of Toronto, Canada, joined the Program, giving it a new lease of life with the training of other new Brazilian professors recently hired from UFV and with the donation of various equipment for the laboratories.
On July 29, 1988, the Teaching, Research and Extension Commission (CEPE), the UFV’s superior body, approved the creation of the Doctoral Course in Forest Science, beginning in March 1989 and its accreditation by the Council Federal of Education, on June 8, 1994.
Thanks to the determination of the pioneer professors and their successors, who knew how to maintain this important legacy, Brazil has dozens of Forest Engineering schools, whose several professors were trained at UFV, thanks to the PPGCF. This program also enabled the training of numerous masters and doctors who work in the research activities of public institutions and forest-based companies in Brazil and abroad, placing the country in the world leadership in productivity in the forest sector, contributing to the generation of wealth and social and environmental benefits for Brazil.
The program is divided into four areas of concentration: Forest Management, Environment and Nature Conservation, Forestry and Technology and Use of Forest Products and acts strongly in the training of human resources, with 857 masters and 288 doctors having been awarded since its creation. Professionals trained by the program work at several Brazilian universities and also occupy prominent positions in the country’s main forest-based companies and industries. Currently, 123 students are enrolled in the program, 69 of whom are enrolled in a doctorate and 54 in a master’s degree.
The PPGCF currently has 24 (twenty-four) permanent professors and 9 (nine) highly qualified collaborating professors, largely with postdoctoral degrees, who stand out for the technical-scientific production of books and articles in journals with a high factor of impact. These professors also have a long history of working in synergy with the private sector, having carried out joint technological development in this period with more than 300 forestry companies and helping the country to be a leader and important player in the pulp, paper, steel and sheet industries. , energy, among others.
In the last evaluation carried out by CAPES in 2017, the Program obtained a grade of 5, which places it among the best Forest Resources programs in Brazil. At the end of 2020, its permanent faculty is composed of 24 permanent members, the majority, 58%, with CNPq productivity scholarship holders and a collaborating faculty composed of 9 members, with 55% CNPq productivity scholarship holders.
The main funding sources for the Program are Capes, CNPq and Fapemig. In addition to these development agencies, the Program also counts on the support of different national and international institutions and companies for the development of cutting-edge research for the forestry sector. In addition, the PPGCF has agreements and collaborations with several universities and international research institutes, promoting an intense exchange of students and professors abroad.
In the last four years, the guiding professors approved, with the intervention of the Sociedade de Investigações Florestais, more than R$ 15,000,000.00 (fifteen million reais) in projects with the private sector. Due to its history in public-private partnerships and excellence in serving the productive market with the development of innovative and disruptive technologies, UFV’s Forestry Engineering Department was accredited as one of the Embrapii units. The creation of this unit indicates that the department will receive financial contributions in the amount of R$ 6 million (non-refundable) over the next three years for investment in RD&I projects in partnership with the industries in the sector. The projects, which will be developed by the program’s guiding professors, may involve everything from fiber production (nursery, improvement,
In the last Strategic Planning, the mission and vision of the PPGCF changed in order to make it more and more suited to the realities of Brazilian research.
Thus, the Program’s new Mission is:
Develop scientific and technological knowledge of forest science, through research and training of human resources, in order to provide society with environmentally adequate forest goods and services, which incorporate new, innovative, socially fair and economically viable technologies.
And the vision is:
To be a national and international reference in scientific and technological development in forest science, through high-impact scientific publications, exchanges with other research centers and companies and the training of masters and doctors focused on technological innovation and excellence having a high impact on society.
History of the CAPES concept of the program:
Evaluation period: Concept:
2013-2016 5
2010-2012 6
2007-2009 5
2004-2006 4
2001-2003 5
1998-2000 5
1998-2001 6
1996-1998 A
Coordinator history
2020 – Current – Carlos Moreira Miquelino Eleto Torres
2015 – 2020 – Claudio Mudadu Silva
2009 – 2015 – Márcio Lopes da Silva
2008 – 2009 – Carlos Antônio Alvares Soares Ribeiro
2000 – 2008 – Carlos Cardoso Machado
1985 – 2000 – Benedito Rocha Vidal
1981 – 1984 – José Lívio Gomide
1978 – 1981 – Ricardo Marius Della Lucia
1975 – 1978 – Roberto da Silva Ramalho
