Eduardo Brondizio will be awarded the 2023 Volvo Environment Prize for his research examining human-environment interactions and how they’ve transformed the Amazon. Brondizio, Indiana University Distinguished Professor of Anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences, is the first Volvo Environment Prize laureate from IU.
The annual award recognizes those who have made outstanding scientific discoveries around sustainability. Three laureates have gone on to win the Nobel Prize.
“As one of the world’s leading experts on the environmental landscape of the Amazon, Eduardo’s research has a truly global impact that is shaping our understanding of how to pursue a more sustainable future,” IU President Pamela Whitten said. “His scholarship and research demonstrate how leading faculty at IU are at the forefront of solving some of society’s most pressing challenges, while providing the type of immersive student experiences and rich faculty collaborations that are at the heart of IU’s mission as a public research university.”
For nearly 35 years, Brondizio’s research has documented and analyzed the development and environmental challenges of the Amazon. He’s examined issues of land use, deforestation, climate change and food production, and their impact on different populations.
“Sustainability issues are about people, and the social sciences are essential to the conversation,” he said. “If we don’t really understand the motivations, the history, the factors that affect people’s interactions with the environment and how we work as a society, we won’t be able to develop solutions to the problems we face today.”