Duilia de Mello

Duília de Mello is an extragalactic astrophysicist, vice-provost for global strategies and professor of physics at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC. She has been a collaborator at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for 19 years. She holds a degree in astronomy from UFRJ, a master's degree from INPE and the University of Alabama, and a doctorate from USP. In 1997 she discovered a supernova in Chile and went to work with the Hubble Space Telescope at Johns Hopkins University. In 2013 she was chosen as one of the 10 women changing Brazil by Barnard College-Columbia University. In 2014 she received the Diaspora Brasil Professional of the Year award and Época magazine selected her as one of the 100 most influential people in Brazil. In 2017 she was chosen as one of the 17 women who made a difference by UOL. In 2018 she was considered by Tecmundo magazine as Brazil genius number 5. In 2020 she received the Order of Rio Branco and in 2022 she made the Forbes 50 over 50 list. Her goal is to change the world, student by student.