Filipe Duarte Santos was born in Lisbon and is currently a retired Full Professor at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, where he taught courses in Physics, Astrophysics, Environmental Sciences, and Climate Change.
President of the National Council for Environment and Sustainable Development since March 2017. From 1969 to 2006, he was a visiting professor at several universities in the United States and Europe. Director of the Doctoral Program in Climate Change and Sustainable Development Policies at the University of Lisbon and NOVA University Lisbon from 2009 to 2024. Between 1999 and 2019, he represented Portugal at the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, where he was elected vice-chair twice. Review Editor for the 5th Assessment Report of the IPCC in 2015. Presently member of the Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Change (CE3C) of the CHANGE Associated Laboratory. He has coordinated more than 15 scientific projects, authored over 150 scientific papers in indexed journals, and published several books, the most recent 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. In 2005 he was awarded the rank of Grand Officer of the Order of Santiago de Espada, and in 2009 he received the University of Lisbon Prize, among other distinctions. Throughout his career, he has also contributed to science communication in the media.