Humans on Earth

1. Science and Technology. From the Origins up to the Twenty-First Century.- 2. A Very Brief History of the Universe, Earth, and Life.- 3. The Contemporary Situation.- 4. The Future.- 5. Human Development and Environmental Discourses.

Full professor of physics at the University of Lisbon, Portugal Since 1980's his research interests are on environmental sciences, global change, climate change and sustainable development.

Author of more than 120 papers in scientific journals on nuclear physics, astrophysics, environment and climate change.

Visiting scholar in various EU and USA Universities, such as Surrey, Munchen, Vrije at Amsterdam, Wisconsin at Madison, North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke and Indiana.

Coordinator and Editor of the First White Paper on the Environment in Portugal, 1991.

Coordinator and Editor of two books reporting on Project SIAM - Climate Change in Portugal. Scenarios, Impacts and Adaptation Measures (www.siam.fc.ul.pt) published in 2002 (SIAM I) and 2006 (SIAM II). This was the first national climate change impact assessment for Portugal and also for the South of Europe.

Member of the Portuguese National Council for the Environment and Sustainable Development since 1998.

Member of the Portuguese Delegation to the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change since 1999.

Director for Sustainable Development, Global Change and Ecosystems of the Ibero-American Programme CYTED - Science and Technology for Development (www.cyted.org).

Vice-President elect for the 2008-2010 term of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (www.unoosa.org/COPUOS/copuos.html)

"Professor Filipe Duarte Santos, a physicist and scholar of environmental sciences at the University of Lisbon, provides a sweeping, thoughtful view of the role of humans in shaping our modern world. Beginning with a short history of the universe, he crafts an easily accessible narrative, weaving together an exploration of the laws of physics, an examination of human evolution, and an illuminating discussion of the roles played by art, religion, science, and technology." From the Foreword by Paul Epstein, Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard Medical School

From the reviews:

"Professor Filipe Duarte Santos, a physicist and scholar of environmental sciences at the University of Lisbon, provides a sweeping, thoughtful view of the role of humans in shaping our modern world. Beginning with a short history of the universe, he crafts an easily accessible narrative, weaving together an exploration of the laws of physics, an examination of human evolution, and an illuminating discussion of the roles played by art, religion, science, and technology."

From the Foreword by Paul Epstein, Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard Medical School

"In Humans on Earth, Santos ... begins with an exploration of the past to look at future risks, uncertainties, and challenges for Homo sapiens. ... The entire book is an overview that briefly touches on many themes, ranging from Hinduism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to biodiversity and anthropogenic change, to describe human evolution. ... Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates and general readers." (W. K. Bauchspies, Choice, Vol. 49 (11), July, 2012)