Congratulations to Claudia Vega: 2025 TED Fellow

Global mercury expert leads world-class lab in the middle of the Amazon

Sabin Center Fellow Claudia Vega, who heads up CINCIA’s Mercury Program, has just been announced as a 2025 TED Fellow. Trained as an analytical chemist and a wildlife veterinarian, Vega’s work illuminates how the mercury used in artisanal and small-scale gold mining accumulates in aquatic environments, enters the food web, and profoundly harms human health and wildlife.

Her work on mercury pollution in the Amazon is the kind of science that not only advances knowledge, but also drives meaningful change. We’re incredibly proud to support her efforts in tackling one of the Amazon’s—and the world’s—most urgent environmental and social crises.

 – Founding Director Miles Silman

Her TED Fellowship underscores how essential her work has become to our global understanding of mercury pollution since she established the first mercury research laboratory in the Peruvian Amazon back in 2017. Vega is also a member of the United Nations Open-Ended Scientific Group, a committee of top global mercury experts evaluating the effectiveness of the UN Minimata Convention on Mercury, and was the principal author of a recently published UN report on monitoring mercury in and around gold mining sites.

A huge congratulations to Claudia Vega, who will be officially inducted at the TED Conference in Vancouver next month.