Claudio Melo is an astronomer born in the beautiful coastal city of Natal (Brazil) holding a PhD in Astrophysics from the University of Geneva, Switzerland.

The astonishing beauty of the night sky and his drive to explore the Universe took him to Atacama Desert in Chile where he became a science fellow at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in 2002, becoming a staff astronomer in 2006. For almost 20 years, Claudio contributed to ESO in many different roles from observatory operations, science management, and more recently in science policy and diplomacy. Claudio’s research interests focus on exoplanets and young stars.

Inspired by the Portuguese ambitions of making space part of the country’s life, Claudio wishes to foster synergies between space and ground-based astronomy to fuel the virtuous circle that science creates in society.

His regular karate training and his passion for surfing keeps Claudio connected to the ground and to the ocean!