A former HCE College fellow wins Early Career Maddox Award for 2025 Standing up for Science
The 2025 Nature Awards for Standing Up For Science - The John Maddox Prize - winners are Virginia Burkett, United States Geological Survey, as a Maddox Award winner, Nicolás Zanetta-Colombo, Heidelberg University as an Early Career Award winner; and a judges' Commendation for this year is Andrew Macintosh, The Australian National University.
The John Maddox Prize recognises researchers who stand up and speak out for science and evidence-based policy, advancing public discussion around difficult topics.
Nico Zanetta-Colombo is a young Chilean researcher at the South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University and was an HCE College fellow until earning his PhD degree last year. His research focuses on the energy transition and the impact of copper mining on human health and the environment. Furthermore, he has cooperated with indigenous communities in the Atacama Desert for over a decade, incorporating their health concerns into his research and sharing the results with them.
He has been acknowledged for "his innovative, inclusive approach to the research and to the dissemination of its findings".