Heitor Matallo Junior was born in Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil, in 1955. He began his academic career in physics at the University of Brasília (1974–1976) before transitioning to the social sciences, in which he earned his degree in 1981. This interdisciplinary foundation led him to graduate studies in Logic and Philosophy of Science at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), where he deepened his engagement with epistemological and methodological issues at the intersection of science and society.
As a sociologist, he served as a university professor for eight years before joining the United Nations, where he worked for more than fifteen years under the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Within the UNCCD Secretariat, he held responsibilities in the Office for Knowledge Management, Science, and Technology (KMST), supporting Parties to the Convention in identifying and promoting sustainable land governance practices in arid and semi-arid regions.
Alongside his institutional roles, Matallo has maintained an active academic career, publishing on topics related to desertification, epistemology, and the history of science. His work reflects a dual commitment: on one hand, empirical inquiry into sustainability and land degradation; on the other, philosophical investigations into hermeneutics, epistemology, and the interpretive structures underpinning scientific knowledge.
Since retiring from the UN in 2017, he has dedicated himself fully to philosophical research, with a special focus on hermeneutics and the epistemology of science. His publications include several books in Portuguese and English. His most recent works include:
- The Hermeneutic Thought and the Shape of Understanding (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2025).
Knowledge and Hermeneutic Plagiarism during the Renaissance (1250–1650): An Archaeology of Preservation, Appropriation, and the Invention of Modern Thought, Ethics International Press. - “Relativistic Language and the Natural Philosophy Big Bang” (Zenodo, 2023). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8086555
- “The Hermeneutic Challenge in Quantum Physics” (Philosophy and Cosmology, 2025, Vol. 35).
Contact: matalloheitor48@gmail.com