HE Antonio de Aguiar Patriota was appointed Ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 2023. Previously, he was Ambassador of Brazil to the Arab Republic of Egypt and the State of Eritrea (2019-2023); Ambassador of Brazil to Italy, Malta and San Marino (2016-2019) and Permanent Representative of Brazil to the United Nations (2013-2016). He served as Foreign Minister (2011-2013), Deputy Foreign Minister (2009-2010) and Ambassador to the United States (2007-2009). During his period as Ambassador to the UN, he was Chairman of the 60th and 61st Sessions of the Commission on the Status of Women and Chairman of the Peacebuilding Commission of the UN (2013-2014). During his diplomatic career, he was also posted in Geneva (1983-1987 and 1999-2003), New York (1994-1999), Beijing (1987-1988) and Caracas (1988-1990).

Professor Nuno Faria is currently working on a research programme focused on the evolution and epidemiology of rapidly evolving viruses that circulate in human and animal populations, such as SARS-CoV-2, yellow fever, chikungunya, Zika and dengue. His research topics include: epidemiology, evolution and phylodynamics of viral epidemics; local and regional genomic capacity and outbreak preparedness; and implementation of One Health approaches in hotspots of emerging infectious diseases. Nuno Faria is a Professor in Virus Genomic Epidemiology at the Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, and an invited Professor in Infectious Diseases at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, University of São Paulo, Brazil. In December 2021, he became part of the World Health Organization Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on Arboviruses. He has previously been an Associate Professor at the Department of Zoology and a Research Lecturer in Infectious Disease Control at the University of Oxford, an Associate of the Oxford Martin School Programme on Pandemic Genomics, and a Wellcome Trust and Royal Society Sir Henry Dale Fellow.

Dr Cristina Banks-Leite is Reader in Conservation Ecology at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park), Imperial College London. In her research, she investigates how communities are structured in fragmented landscapes of tropical regions. Cristina’s current projects address questions about how biogeographical factors influence local species’ responses to habitat transformation; how local species extinction disrupts ecosystem functioning; and thresholds, the decline of biodiversity, and ecosystem functioning across tropical regions. She works at the interface of community ecology and landscape ecology, and her main goal is to unveil the causes and consequences of species turnover and species extinction in human-modified landscapes

Dr Andreza Aruska de Souza Santos is the Director of King’s Brazil Institute at the School of Global Affairs, King’s College London, and Senior Lecturer in Brazil and Latin American Studies. Andreza completed her PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews and holds a master’s degree in Social Sciences jointly awarded by the University of Freiburg, the University of KwaZulu Natal in Durban and JNU, in New Delhi, India. Having studied in Brazil, Germany, South Africa, India, and the United Kingdom, Andreza writes about Brazilian politics and city governance comparatively. Before joining King’s, she was a lecturer at the University of Oxford and director of the Brazilian Studies Programme (2018-2023). She has previously worked at Brazil’s Ministry of Social Development, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (Vienna), the Indian Embassy in Brazil, and the Brazilian Confederation of Municipalities

Dr Raphael Cunha is Lecturer in Politics at the Department of Political Economy, King’s College London. He studies international and comparative political economy, focusing on the politics of international money and finance. In his research, he examines how global capital markets affect and are affected by domestic politics in developing countries. Before joining King’s, Raphael was an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Florida State University and a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance at Princeton University. His research has been published in Comparative Political Studies, International Studies Quarterly, and Review of International Organizations, among others.