Luis E. Fernandez is a Research Associate at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology, and a Visiting Researcher at Stanford University.

His research focuses on examining land use change and deforestation dynamics in tropical regions using a complex systems approach. In Brazil, Luis looks at the indirect land use change effects of biofuels expansion in the Cerrado savannah biome. In Peru, he studies the impacts of artisanal gold mining, road construction and mercury contamination on natural and human ecosystems in the Amazonian region of Madre de Dios. Luis also is interested in advanced applications of Agent-Based Models in understanding interactions between economic, socio-cultural and natural factors in deforestation and resource depletion.

Luis also holds a special term appointment at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory as a Environmental Scientist in the Environmental Science Division. Since 2009, he has served as a Subject Expert on renewable energy and biofuels for the U.S. State Department's U.S. Specialist and Speaker Program in Angola, Cape Verde, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Environmental Leadership Program (ELP) in Washington DC, and a Scholar at the Aspen Institute's 2011 Aspen Environmental Forum in Aspen, CO.

Before coming to Carnegie, Luis worked at the U.S Environmental Protection Agency's Office of International Affairs in Washington DC as an International Affairs Specialist focusing on Latin American environmental policy, and at the EPA's regional office in Dallas, TX as an Environmental Scientist. Previously, he had worked as a Research Associate at the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment, and was a Fulbright Scholar in environmental studies in Nicaragua.

Luis has appeared on television, print and radio media in 9 countries, and his research in the Amazon has been profiled in Scientific American magazine, the Virginia Quarterly Review (VQR) and Smithsonian Magazine.