Paulo Tito Klinger Jacomine
Paulo Tito Klinger Jacamine was born in São Fidelis, RJ, on October 12, 1932, but it was in the Northeast that he built a solid career that makes him a Brazilian reference in soil classification. He became an Agricultural Engineer at UFRRJ in 1957, but it was at the Minas Gerais Agronomic Institute that he began his career as a pedologist. After specializing in soils, in 1958, he participated in soil surveys in several Brazilian states. In 1963 he went to the northeast to carry out soil surveys in Alagoas and Pernambuco, where he got married and has remained until then.
After a course in photo interpretation and pedology in France, he started to coordinate SUDENE, the northeastern team that carried out soil surveys in all states in the Northeast and north of Minas Gerais. Between 1966 and 1977 Paulo Klinger was a professor of Soil Geology at UFRPE, in Recife. He holds a full teaching degree in Genesis, Morphology and Soil Classification from UFRPE and was a CNPq scholarship holder. In 1974 he started working at Embrapa SNLCS where he remained until retiring in 1990. Afterwards, he began to act as a consultant on several soil survey projects in the northeast and south of Brazil. In 1994 he returned to UFRPE as a visiting professor guiding students with his vast knowledge of soil genesis, morphology and classification.
Paulo Klinger is a member of the Executive Committee for the development of the Brazilian Soil Classification System, currently coordinated by Embrapa Soils. His contribution to Soil Science in Brazil is invaluable, having participated in the team that created the Soil Map in Brazil, published in 1981. He is one of the authors of the book Classes Gerais de Solos no Brasil, published by Unesp, in 1992, and also from the book Brazilian Soil Classification System, published by Embrapa, in 1999. He worked throughout the national territory and in several Latin American countries on Soil Correlation and Classification trips.
Throughout his career, he participated extensively in SBCS as a speaker, advisor and organizer of all soil correlation trips promoted by SBCS since 1959, except in 1965. He has been an honorary member since 1999.
In 2009, during the Brazilian Soil Science Congress, he was awarded the Antonio Carlos Moniz Prize when he completed 50 years dedicated to Soil Science in Brazil. Paulo Klinger Jacamine is considered by many to be the pedologist who knows the most about soil in Brazil.