A TWAS Fellow since 2009, Brazilian physicist and climatologist Paulo Artaxo has been awarded the 2026 Alliance of World Scientists (AWS) Planet Earth Award.

The award acknowledges “individuals who demonstrate exceptional creativity or contributions in their work in science-based advocacy with the public, policymakers, or other non-scientist groups seeking solutions to environmental challenges.”

Artaxo is the director of the Centre for Sustainable Amazon Studies at the University of São Paulo, where he also teaches environmental physics at the Institute of Physics.

During his career, he has worked at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Harvard University, the Universities of Antwerp, Stockholm, and Lund in Sweden, and the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany.

His scientific interests include atmospheric chemistry and aerosols, air quality and health impacts, atmospheric aerosols and clouds, atmospheric ozone and climate, plant responses to elevated CO2, and conservation and biodiversity.

Artaxo is the vice-president of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Sciences, a Fellow of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a long-time member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

During his scientific career, he has been honoured with numerous prizes, including a PhD honoris causa (2009) from Stockholm University and the President’s International Fellowship Initiative Award (2024) from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has published more than 500 scientific works, including more than 30 papers in high-impact journals in the Science and Nature portfolios.

Cristina Serra