Astrid Caldas

Astrid Caldas is a senior climate scientist for community resilience at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), where her work focuses on climate change adaptation and science communication, with practical policy implications for ecosystems, the economy and society – including equitable and just adaptation and resilience measures. She was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she started her career as a field ecologist. After moving to the United States, she staged a change that brought her to the arena of climate change science and policy and related issues of climate justice, biodiversity and sustainability.

Before joining UCS, Dr. Caldas was a science and technology policy fellow at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a climate change and wildlife science fellow at Defenders of Wildlife, a research scientist at the University of Maryland and a professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro.

Caldas has advised on biodiversity projects with the Smithsonian Institution, served on the Scientific Review Committee at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center and worked in both domestic and international settings. In her free time, she enjoys cycling, reading and traveling – and going to a beach on the Bay!