Brazilian ecologist Luisa Maria Diele-Viegas, a 2025 TWAS Young Affiliate and a permanent professor in the graduate programme in ecology at the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil, has received the 2026 Alliance of World Scientists Planet Earth Award. 

The award acknowledges individuals who champion life through exceptional creativity, meaningful contributions, and impactful work grounded in justice and aligned principles.
Diele-Viegas serves as a collaborating professor in the Biology Department at the State University of Santa Cruz, Ilhéus, Brazil, and is also currently a courtesy senior research associate I, University of Oregon, US, and a postdoctoral researcher, Michigan State University, US.
She earned a PhD in ecology and evolution (2019) from the State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and soon developed an interest in the impact of human activities on natural and human systems, science governance and diplomacy, and ethnobiology. Her work integrates ecological research, climate science, and traditional knowledge to promote conservation strategies that are both scientifically robust and socially just.
She is the president of the Brazilian Association of Ecological Science and Conservation, chair of the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World Brazilian Chapter, and a member of the Global Young Academy, where she co-leads the addressing systemic discrimination committee.
Diele-Viegas is also the co-founder and president of the Kunhã Asé Network of Women in Science, and a council member of the European Society of Evolutionary Biology.
In the laboratory of (bio)diversity in the Anthropocene, which she coordinates, she mentors more than 60 students. In her work, she pursues three major lines of research: examining the impacts of global change on natural and human systems; advancing science diplomacy and environmental governance; and developing transdisciplinary, ethnobiological approaches to address environmental challenges.

Cristina Serra