Fausto
Sarmiento
Professor of Mountain Science
University of Georgia
Fausto O. Sarmiento, Ph.D., a full professor of Geography at the University of Georgia and internationally recognized leader of montology, directs the Neotropical Montology Collaboratory. He looks into human-environment interactions informed by evidence of landscape transformation and dynamics of land cover/land use change, with critical biogeography, political ecology insights, historical documentation, neoecological field research, and modeling for alternative scenarios of sustainability and regenerative development.
Working at the intersection of tropical mountain geographies, he contributes research at the forest transition and other active boundaries, such as the Andean treeline, Andean sustainable development, or the implication of biocultural heritage on Andean sacred sites and indigenous revival. By studying the role of human impacts in shaping the neotropical highlands he is reconstructing ecological theory applicable to Andean farmscape transformation and Andean identity markers in the midst of global environmental change, developing new narratives of mountain sustainability as tropical environments are constructed, represented, claimed and contested.
He has been keynote speaker in numerous international congresses and academic events. Dr. Sarmiento received the prestigious Fulbright Global Scholar award in 2022. When not in the field, in the classroom, or in commission elsewhere, he enjoys gardening, reading, listening to folk and classical music, and volunteering in the Latino community.