Paulo Artaxo, Ph.D.

Paulo Artaxo is a professor of environmental physics at the Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo. He initiated the study of tropical aerosols in 1980s, highlighting the significant climatic role of particles resulting from biomass burning in Amazonia. He has played a leading role in field experiments, including large international campaigns and the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA) investigation. He plays an active international role in fostering scientific development in low- and middle-income countries, including in his role as a member of several scientific steering committees of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme. He has been a major contributor to multiple IPCC Assessments, contributing to or leading analyses and reports on a range of topics such as radiative forcing, aerosols and cloud effects, land use, and geoengineering and was the advisor of 60 M.Sc. and Ph.D. students. He has played a major role as a science advisor and advocate, including as vice president of the Brazilian Association for the Advancement of Science (SBPC) and vice president of the São Paulo Academy of Sciences (ACIESP). He has been recognized for his contributions with the 2007 TWAS Earth Science Prize, the 2007 Dorothy Stang Award, the 2010 Fissan-Pui-TSI Award, the 2010 Ordem do Mérito Científico Nacional (National Order of Scientific Merit) at the level of Comendador, and the 2016 Almirante Álvaro Alberto Award, one of the most important science prizes in Brazil.