Shabani (PhD, 1986, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium) is professor of mathematics and mathematical physics, University of Burundi (UB); president, Burundi Academy of Sciences; past vice-president, African Academy of Sciences and African Mathematical Union. He is president of the Burundi National Commission for higher education; and director of the University of Burundi Doctoral School. He was director of the UNESCO Harare Cluster Office and representative to several African countries and regional economic commissions. He was vice-rector of UB; deputy secretary general of the Association of African Universities. He is president of the International Advisory Board of the Africa Centre of Excellence on Innovative and Transformative STEM Education at Lagos State University, Nigeria (funded by the World Bank); president of the International Conference on Quality Assurance in Higher Education in Africa; member of the Executive Committee of the Global University Network for Innovation, Barcelona, Spain; member of the High Level Panel of the Pan African University; coordinator of the African Union quality assurance cluster; member of African Academy of Sciences.

Alencar da Silva obtained his PhD in 1988 at IMPA-Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics in Rio de Janeiro. Currently, he is a professor at UFAL-Federal University of Alagoas in Maceió, State of Alagoas, member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, the president of the Brazilian Mathematical Society, coordinator of the Center for Research in Computational Mathematics in Maceió, member of the Scientific Council of the Research Foundation of the State of Alagoas, member of the Council for Basic Education of CAPES (Brazil’s Graduate Studies Agency), and member of the Scientific of IMPA. He was vice-rector for Research and Graduate Studies at UFAL and he was honored with the Grand Croix of the Order of Scientific Merit, granted by the President of Brazil in 2010.

Carlos Alberto Aragão de Carvalho (BSc, 1973, MSc, 1976, PUC/RJ; PhD Princeton, 1980): retired Professor of Physics, UFRJ (1994 - 2016); specialist in Quantum Field Theory & its applications. Currently: Director of Scientific and Technological Development, Finep/MCTI. Previously: Research Associate, CERN (1980-81); Research Associate, CNRS, University of Paris XI, Orsay (1981-82); Assistant Professor (1982-88) & Associate Professor (1985-93), PUC/RJ; Director of Innovation, Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development - ABDI (2005); Director of Scientific and Technological Development, Finep/MCTI (2005 - 2007); President, Brazilian National Research Council - CNPq (2010); Director-General, National Center for Research in Energy & Materials - CNPEM (2011-14); Director of Innovation & Technology, Inmetro (2014-2016); Technical Consultant, Naval Agency for Nuclear Safety and Quality - Brazilian Navy (2017-2023). Member: Brazilian Academy of Sciences and Brazilian National Academy of Engineering. Prizes: Medal & Great Cross, Brazilian Order of Scientific Merit; and Medal, Order of Naval Merit.

Arruda is a full professor, Department of Genetics, Institute of Biology, State University of Campinas (Unicamp). He received his PhD in genetics from Unicamp and has pioneered the field of plant molecular biology and plant genomics in Brazil. His research interests are on the understanding the regulation of gene expression in plants and its impact on amino acid metabolism and plant response to biotic and abiotic stresses. He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. He has received honours including the National Order of Scientific Merit, Brazil; Scientific and Technological Merit Award, State of São Paulo; and 2001 RedBio Medal, Red Latino-Americana de Biotecnologia (FAO) for his contribution to the development of plant biotechnology in Latin America and Caribe. He was co-founder and scientific director of the plant biotechnology company Alellyx Applied Genomics.

Artaxo is a professor of environmental Physics at the Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo (USP). He has worked at NASA, Harvard University (USA), the universities of Antwerp, Stockholm, and Lund, as well as the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry. His primary interest lies in global climate change, in research on the Amazon region. He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and the World Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the US AAAS, and a long-time member of the IPCC. He is the vice president of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Sciences. He has been honored with numerous prizes, including the Doctor of Philosophy Honoris Causa title in 2009 from the University of Stockholm and the 2024 PIFI Award from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He published 519 scientific works and presented more than 1200 papers at international conferences. He has 73,701 citations in Google Scholar, with an H-index of 129, and 61,071 citations of his works in ResearchGate, with an h-index of 123. He has published 35 papers in journals in the Science and Nature groups. He is the Director of the Center for Sustainable Amazon Studies (CEAS) at the University of São Paulo.

Ohara Augusto is a Full Professor at the Biochemistry Department, Chemistry Institute, University of São Paulo, Brazil. Augusto´s research interests always focused on the understanding of the multiple roles of radicals and oxidants in physiology and pathophysiology. She received several prizes for her contributions to the redox area and supervised many students. Presently, she is the Director of the Research, Innovation and Dissemination Center for Redox Processes in Biomedicine (Redoxoma) (http://redoxoma.iq.usp.br/) in São Paulo, Brazil.

Azevedo is full professor at the Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz, University of São Paulo (USP) in Piracicaba. He obtained his PhD in 1992 at Lancaster University, United Kingdom. He is Fellow of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences since 2010. Azevedo supervised 18 Master and 30 PhD students and 24 post-doctoral fellows. Azevedo has held positions as Coordinator of two Post-Graduate Programs, other administrative positions at USP, and Member of the Botany Advisory Committee at Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), among others. Azevedo is strongly involved with scientific editing and was a member of the Editorial Board of several journals. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Annals of Applied Biology (Wiley). He is also a member of the Advisory Board of Scientia Agricola. He was Vice-President of the Brazilian Association of Scientific Editors. He has published over 210 papers.

Barbosa is professor in the Departamento de Matematica, Universidade Federal do Ceara, Campus do PICI, Fortaleza, Brazil. A well known mathematician and expert in differential geometry, he has made outstanding contributions to the stability of minimal immersions of surfaces in the Euclidean space, and towards precise, simple conditions to decide when critical points for the variational problem of minimizing area are minimal. He has been awarded the Medal of Scientific Merit of Brazil, is fellow of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and of the Academy Cearense of Sciences, and is a member of the Brazilian and American Mathematical Societies and the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science. He was, for two terms, the president of the Brazilian Mathematical Society. Recently he became Professor Emeritus and President of the Ethics Commission of the Universidade Federal do Ceará.

Barreto completed his Medical Studies and a Master in Public Health at Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. He was awarded a PhD from the University of London. He's a Professor at UFBa and a Senior Investigator at Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. He leads a multidisciplinary research group studying poverty-related infectious diseases, allergy and asthma, the environmental and social determinants of health, health inequalities, and the impact of population-based health and social interventions on health. Recently he set up the Center for Data and Knowledge Integration for Health-CIDACS where is housed the “100 million Brazilians cohort” aimed to evaluate the impact of social programs on health. He was a lead organizer of the Lancet Series on Brazil, published in 2011. He has published over 400 peer-reviewed papers and has supervised 25 successful PhD thesis. He is an elected fellow of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and of the World Academy of Sciences and an Honorary Professor at the LSHTM

Bauzer Medeiros is Full Professor at the Instituto de Computação of Unicamp, the Universidade Estadual de Campinas, in Brazil. She earned her MSc in 1979 from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, and her PhD in Computer Science in 1985 from the University of Waterloo, in Canada. She received Brazilian and international awards for research, teaching, and work in fostering the participation of women in information technology. Her research is centred on the managing scientific data, including handling very heterogeneous data sources. She coordinated large transdisciplinary and multi-institutional projects in agro-environmental planning, biodiversity and health, involving, among others, sensor data streams, satellite images, photos, videos, sound, clinical data and all kinds of textual sources. As the President of the Sociedade Brasileira de Computação (2003–2007), she launched some of the first countrywide initiatives to attract women to computing. She is recognized in Brazilian and international forums for initiatives associated with public policies in science and technology and in open data, and coordinates open science activities at the Brazilian Acad

B. Noronha received his BS degree from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in 1987, MSc degree in 1989, from the Alberto Luiz Coimbra Institute for Graduate Studies and Research in Engineering (COPPE)-UFRJ, and PhD degree in 1994 from COPPE-UFRJ and Institut de Recherches sur la Catalyse – Lyon, France. In 1996, he joined the catalysis group of the National Institute of Technology, Brazil. He worked in a postdoctoral position with Prof. Daniel Resasco at Oklahoma University from 1999–2000. He has been a visiting professor in a research chair at the Ecole Centrale de Lille in the Biomass Valorisation Group at Unité de Catalyse et de Chimie du Solide since 2019. He is a category 1A researcher of the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), and a researcher of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ), Brazil. Since 2008, he has been one of the Brazilian representatives on the International Association of Catalysis Societies. In 2021, he was elected to the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.

Beraldo is professor of chemistry at Departamento de Química, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil. She obtained her PhD degree (Docteur d’État ès Sciences Physiques) from Université Paris VI (1984). She spent one year as senior intern at the Chemistry Department, Illinois State University (1996), and was invited professor at Université Paris XIII (1993, 1999, 2010). Beraldo is interested in inorganic chemistry and medicinal inorganic chemistry. She supervised 11 postdoctoral interns, 24 PhD dissertations and 12 master theses. She has published 146 articles and 3 book chapters. Her h-index is 43 in Google Scholar and 38 in Web of Science. Beraldo was lecturer in the opening lecture at the 2016 Annual Congress of the Brazilian Chemical Society. She has received the top scientific rank awarded by the Brazilian Research Council (CNPq), and was coordinator of the CNPq Chemistry Advisory Committee (2012-2013). Beraldo is a Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. She was awarded the medal of the National Order of Scientific Merit from the Brazilian Government (2018) and the Simão Mathias Medal from the Brazilian Chemical Society (2016).

Berkovits obtained his Bachelor and Masters degrees in Physics at Harvard Univ. in 1983, and his PhD in Physics at the Univ. of California at Berkeley in 1988. He moved to São Paulo in 1994, and is a citizen of Brazil since 2002. Berkovits is currently a full professor at the Instituto de Física Teórica of São Paulo State University (UNESP) and Director of the ICTP South American Institute for Fundamental Research (ICTP‐SAIFR). He was awarded the 2009 TWAS Physics prize for his significant contributions to superstring theory and its covariant quantization and the 2021 APS John Wheatley Award for exceptional leadership in fundamental physics research in South America. He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, the São Paulo State Academy of Sciences, and the International String Theory Advisory Committee.

Boldrin Zanoni is a full professor at the Institute of Chemistry, São Paulo State University (UNESP), Araraquara, Brazil. She earned her master’s degree and PhD in chemical sciences from the University of São Paulo in 1985 and 1989, respectively, specializing in environmental electrochemistry. She completed her postdoctoral fellowships in chemistry at the University of Loughborough, UK (1992–1994), and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, US (2002), and was an academic visitor at Oxford University, in 2008. From 2010 to 2018, she served as an advisor for research development at UNESP. She is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and the Brazilian Academy of the State of São Paulo. Since 2021, she has served as vice-president for graduate studies at UNESP. Throughout her career, she has received numerous awards and honours that confirm her outstanding contributions to chemistry. Her scientific expertise includes the detection and treatment of micropollutants and CO₂ reduction. To date, she has supervised more than 75 master’s, PhD, and postdoctoral researchers, and has published 321 papers, 5 books, and 14 book chapters.

Bouskela is Full Professor and Director of the Clinical Research Unit at the State University of Rio de Janeiro; Director of Technology and Innovation at the Rio de Janeiro State Foundation for Research Support; Member of the Managing Committee for Health at the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication; Full Member of the National Academy of Medicine; Full Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences; Full Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts; Associate Member of the Académie Nationale de Médicine of France and recipient of the Tiradentes Medal given by the Government of Rio de Janeiro state. She obtained her PhD in 1978 at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro after spending 3 years at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN) and at University of Washington (Seattle, WA) and her Docent degree in 1992 at the University of Lund, Sweden.

Bozza is a senior investigator and head of Laboratory of Immunopharmacology at Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), Brazil; she got her MD from the State University of Rio de Janeiro, and her PhD in cellular and molecular biology from the Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Brazil. She received postdoctoral training under Dr. Peter Weller at Harvard Medical School as Pew Latin American Fellow. Bozza is a senior scholar of the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and a member of the Brazilian Academy of Science. She has mentored the work of 24 postdoctoral, 29 PhD and 30 MSc students. Her group's long-term goal is to conduct translational studies that contribute new knowledge on the interplay of metabolic and inflammatory mechanisms in the pathogenesis of emergent and/or severe infectious diseases, aiming at identifying biomarkers and therapeutic targets, including dengue, Zika and COVID-19. In response to the COVID-19 emergency, her group characterized mechanisms involved in thromboinflammation and hypercoagulability in severe COVID-19 patients, and contributed to defining immunometabolic mechanisms involved in infection.

Campos de Carvalho was Director of the Department of Science and Technology at the Ministry of Health in Brazil. He was scientific director of the National Cardiology Institute and is Professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He graduated in medicine and obtained his PhD at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He did postdoctoral work at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine where he now holds a visiting position as Professor. He received 3 national prizes from the Brazilian Federation of Experimental Biology Societies and the Heart Institute (Incor) Prize for his work on cell therapies in cardiac diseases. He was a Fogarty Fellow and is a fellow of the American Heart Association. He was in the Council of the International Union of Physiological Sciences (2009-2013) and is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. He has published more than 200 papers in indexed journals, edited 3 books and 25 book chapters. He tutored 81 master, PhD and post-doctoral students

Canuto (PhD, 1979, University of Uppsala, Sweden) is Professor at the University of São Paulo. A member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and Sao Paulo State Academy of Sciences. Co-editor-in-Chief of the Spectrochimica Acta A, member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry, editorial board of the Chemical Physics Letters (2003-2009), Specialist Editor of the Computer Physics Communications (1987-1990, 2002-2006) and Associate Editor of the Brazilian Journal of Physics (2000-2009). Coordinator of Physics and Astronomy at CAPES-Ministry of Education (2011-2018). M. N. Saha Lecturer (2002) for the IACS (Calcutta, India), honored by the University of Havana (2005); official report for the Nobel Committee of Physics and Chemistry in connection with the Chemistry Nobel Prize (2013), member of the International Jury for Unesco-L’Oréal Prize Women in Science (2011, 2013, 2015, 2017). Vice-President for Research (Provost) of the University of São Paulo (2018-2022). Honored with a special issue of the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry (2011).

Carlini earned her PhD from the Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil, in 1985. She was appointed professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, and was a senior researcher at the Brain Institute of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul. After her retirement, in 2022, she worked as an invited professor at UFRGS and the Federal University of Health Sciences, Porto Alegre. She is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and a research productivity fellow of the Brazilian CNPq. Carlini was a pioneer in proving the non-enzymatic properties of ureases, including their insecticidal, antifungal, and pro-inflammatory, and neurotoxic effects in rodents. Now, she studies how the ureases produced by Helicobacter pylori and Proteus mirabilis might contribute to the onset of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. She was a referee for more than 60 international journals, science and technology funding agencies, and a member of the editorial board of Toxicon for 20 years, section editor of the Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research. Since 2020, she is an executive editor of Current Neuropharmacology.

Chaimovich is an Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry, Institute of Chemistry, U. São Paulo (IQUSP), Brazil; Adjunct Coordinator for Special Programs, São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). Former positions: Director, IQUSP; Research Provost, USP; President Brazilian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Vice-President of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, President of the Brazilian Science and Technology Council, CNPq; Vice-President for External Affairs, ICSU; Co-Chair, InterAmerican Network of Academies of Science. His research focuses on fundamental and applied aspects of surfactant aggregates in Chemistry and Biochemistry, including experimental and theoretical analysis of specific ion effects on the properties of surfactant aggregates. Prizes and Distinctions: Brazilian Order for Scientific Merit; TWAS Medal; Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques, France; Scopus Prize, Elsevier. He is a member of the Academies of Science of Brazil, Chile, Latin America, and Venezuela and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (USA). Contributes regularly to publications in national and international Science Policy.

Colli, a biochemistry professor at the U. of São Paulo (USP), received his PhD under the supervision of Isaias Raw and did postdoc work at PHRI, NYC, USA with M. E. Pullman (1966-1968) and M. Oishi (1968-1969). Returning to Brazil in 1970, he established a group, at the Ins. of Chem. (IQUSP), to work with Molecular Parasitology, particularly with Trypanosoma cruzi, the agent of Chagas' disease. He was dean of IQUSP twice, and of the Butantan Inst. (the Snake Farm). He was pres. (2006-2009) of the Brazilian Technical Committee on Biosafety (CTNBio). He received the title of Doctor (h.c.) from the U. of Buenos Aires, the Great Cross Medal of the Natl. Order of Scientific Merit from the Brazilian govt. and is a member of the Brazilian Acad. of Sciences. In 2014 he was awarded the Almirante Álvaro Alberto Prize for Science and Techn., the most prestigious scientific prize in Brazil. Since 2003 he is an Associate to the Science Director of FAPESP for the areas of Health and Biology.

Cordani is emeritus professor, Institute of Geosciences, University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil. He was trained in geochronology at UC Berkeley (1963) under the guidance of John Reynolds, and obtained his DSc (USP) in 1968. In the 60’s he established a geochronological laboratory that gained international recognition. At the USP he was director of the Institute of Geosciences (1987-1991) and Institute of Advanced Studies (1994-1997). He was president of the International Union of Geological Sciences (1988-1992) and the 31st International Geological Congress (Rio de Janeiro, 2000). He has published ca. 280 scientific articles, and received many awards, among which the Great Cross of Scientific Merit (Brazil), the José Bonifacio Gold Medal (Brazilian Geological Society), and the TWAS medal lecture. He is member of the academies of science of Brazil, Argentina, France and Portugal.

Cordoba De Torresi is professor, Institute of Chemistry of the University of São Paulo (USP). She graduated in chemistry (1983) and got her PhD (1988) at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina, working with electrochemistry, spectroscopy and materials science. After a postdoctoral internship at Université Pierre et Marie Curie, National Centre for Scientific Research, France (1988–1990), she moved to Brazil as a researcher at State University of Campinas and Federal University of São Carlos. She joined the Institute of Chemistry, USP in 1996, and became a full professor in 2006. She has served as president of the Undergraduate and Graduate Commissions and vice-provost of research of USP. Her main interests are research on electrochromism, chemical sensors and electrocatalysis enhanced by plasmonics. She received: Tajima Prize from the International Society of Electrochemistry; National Order of Scientific Merit, Commander category, from the Presidency of the Republic; American Chemical Society Award for Brazilian Women in Chemistry, Scientific Leader category. She is a Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and of the Academy of Sciences of the State of São Paulo.

B.Sc., Mech.& Nuclear Eng., Federal Univ. of Rio de Janeiro, UFRJ, Brazil, 1981, PhD, Mech.&Aerospace Eng., North Carolina State Univ., USA, 1985. Assoc. Professor, UFRJ, 1987, Professor, 1994. Author, 570 papers, 10 books, Supervisor, 49 MSc, 38 PhD, 17 PosDoc. 15 Editorial Boards incl. Int. J. Heat & Mass Transfer. Editor, Annals Braz. Academy of Sciences. President, Braz. Assoc. Mechanical Sciences, ABCM, 2000-2001, Scientific Council, Int. Centre for Heat & Mass Transfer, ICHMT, from 1993, Exec. Comm., from 2006, EC Chairman 2017-2018. Congress Comm., Int. Union of Theor. & Applied Mech., IUTAM, 2012-2018. Exec. Comm., Braz. Academy of Sciences, 2012-2015. ICHMT Hartnett-Irvine Award, 2009 & 2015. ICHMT Fellowship Award, 2019. Nat. Order of Scientific Merit, 2009 & 2018 (Grã-Cruz), Nat. Order of Naval Merit, 2018. Member, Braz. Acad. of Sciences, 2009, Nat. Eng. Acad., 2011, The World Acad. of Sciences, TWAS, 2012. Doctor Honoris Causa, Univ. de Reims, France, 2018. President, Nat. Comm. of Nuclear Energy, CNEN, 2015-2017. Leverhulme Visiting Prof,Univ. College London, UK. Senior Tech. Counselor, DGDNTM, Braz. Navy, from 2017. Member National Council of Energy Policy, 2020-2022

Davidovich was educated at the Pontificia U. Catolica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the U. of Rochester, USA (PhD 1975). He is full professor of physics at the Federal U. of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He has held several visiting positions in France, Germany, USA and UK. His interests cover quantum optics and quantum information. His research has focused on the emergence of the classical world from the quantum substrate; laser theory; cavity quantum electrodynamics; quantum entanglement; and quantum metrology. He is member of the Braz. Acad. of Sci. and Foreign Associate of the US Natl. Acad. of Sci. (since 2006). He is Fellow of the Optical Soc. of Am. and of the Am. Physical Soc.. He was awarded the Grand Cross of the Natl. Order of Scientific Merit, Brazil (2000), the TWAS Physics Prize (2001), and the Braz. Natl. Prize of Sci. (2010). He was member of the Executive Board of ICSU (2011-2014). He has been President of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences since May 2016.

Dezotti (DSc, 1992, University of Campinas, Brazil) is Professor at COPPE, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She received more than 30 awards, among which the COPPE Giulio Massarani Award - Academic Merit by COPPE/UFRJ (2010), in recognition of her scientific production of the highest level. She was awarded four times as Scientist of Our State from the Amparo Research Foundation of State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ), Brazil. For the consolidation of the national research in Advanced Oxidation Processes (POAs), she received a tribute of the VIII Meeting on Oxidative Processes and II Iberoamerican Conference on POA (2015). She coordinated numerous projects with industries. She has published three books that are adopted as a reference in Brazilian universities. She has published in the best international journals, had outstanding performance in the training of MSc and DSc students and is one of the most cited researchers in Brazil, in the area of chemical engineering. Additionally, she is Founding Member of the COPPE Women Support Group. She was elected Full Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences in 2020 in recognition of her scientific production and its impact in Brazil.

De Gouveia Dal Pino (PhD in astronomy, University of São Paulo, 1989) is full professor, Department of Astronomy, Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics, and Atmospheric Sciences, University of São Paulo (IAG-USP), Brazil. She had postdoctoral affiliation at Harvard University (1991–1993), and was associated researcher at International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Italy (1994–2001). She introduced in Brazil high-performance magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) numerical simulations to model astrophysical sources: from solar interior, star formation regions, jets and black holes, to galaxy clusters. She has pioneering studies on MHD turbulence, magnetic reconnection, and cosmic ray acceleration in magnetized systems. She is Brazilian principal investigator of the largest gamma-ray observatory in construction, the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), and of ASTRI Mini-Array—precursor of CTA. She is Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and the Brazilian Astronomical Society. She was awarded the Claudia Prize of Woman in Science (2017), and holds the Jabuti Award for Best Scientific Book (2001). She supervised PhD thesis with national honors and Best Theses in Astronomy of IAG-USP.

De Mello obtained his BSc in biochemistry in 1968, MD in 1972, MSc in biophysics in 1973 and PhD in 1980. He is professor of biophysics at the Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho since 1993 and head of the Laboratory of Neurochemistry since 1982. He was previously: Fogarty visiting scientist at the National Institutes of Health from 1973-76; assistant professor, vice director, and director at the Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho between 1978-97; research associate professor at Northwestern University between 1984-86; and Guggenheim fellow in 1984. He was awarded the Gustavo Lessa Award from the Brazilian-American Institute in 1982. He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and the Latin American Academy of Sciences. In April 2015 he became Emeritus Professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.