Filipe Duarte Santos was born in Lisbon and is currently a retired Full Professor at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, having lectured in the areas of Physics, Astrophysics, Environmental Sciences, and Climate Change.
He has served as President of the National Council for Environment and Sustainable Development since March 2017. He was a visiting professor at several universities in the USA and Europe from 1969 to 2006. He served as Director of the PhD Program in Climate Change and Sustainable Development Policies at University of Lisbon and NOVA University Lisbon from 2009 to 2024. From 1999 to 2019, he was the Portuguese delegate to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, having been elected Vice-President twice. He was a Review Editor for the IPCC’s 5th Assessment Report in 2015. He is a member of the Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Change (CE3C) of the CHANGE Associated Laboratory. He has coordinated over 15 scientific projects, published more than 150 scientific papers in indexed journals, and authored several books, the latest being Time, Progress, Growth and Technology. How Humans and the Earth are Responding, Springer, 2021. His current research areas are climate change and sustainability science. He was honored with the degree of Grand Officer of the Order of Santiago da Espada in 2005, and received the University of Lisbon Award in 2009, among others. He has contributed to science communication in the media throughout his career.