Claudia Vega named 2025 TED Fellow for work on mercury pollution in the Amazon
Claudia Vega, a Fellow at Wake Forest University’s Sabin Family Center for Environment and Sustainability, has been selected as a 2025 TED Fellow for her groundbreaking work on the environmental and human health impacts of mercury pollution from illegal gold mining in the Amazon.
Vega spearheads research on mercury’s movement through ecosystems and food chains, informing policies and initiatives to protect environmental and human health, including in Indigenous communities. A trained analytical chemist and wildlife veterinarian, she combines laboratory research with extensive fieldwork to understand how mercury accumulates in aquatic environments, how it enters the food web, and the severe risks it poses to human health and wildlife.
As the Mercury Program Coordinator at the Wake Forest-affiliated Center for Amazonian Scientific Innovation (CINCIA), she collaborates with Wake Forest’s Sabin Center for Environment and Sustainability, integrating cutting-edge science with applied research to address mercury pollution from artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM).
About artisanal and small-scale gold mining
While ASGM may sound small and even traditional, it is a highly destructive and largely unregulated form of open-pit mining that relies on large quantities of mercury to extract tiny gold flecks from tons of river sand and gravel, much of which is released uncontrolled into the environment. ASGM is the world’s largest source of mercury pollution and continues to expand as gold prices soar, surpassing $3,000 per ounce for the first time. Despite its environmental and health consequences, ASGM accounts for 20-25% of the annual global gold supply and remains a major driver of deforestation and contamination in the Amazon. Mercury is a global pollutant that travels through the atmosphere and waterways, contaminating ecosystems far from its source and posing severe health risks to humans and wildlife.
“Mercury pollution is one of the most widespread yet invisible threats to rainforest ecosystems and human health,” said Claudia Vega. “In the Amazon, we see firsthand how it gets absorbed into food webs, threatening the food security and health of riverine populations, and furthers the degradation of one of the most important biodiversity hotspots on Earth. Science must do more than just document these impacts—it must drive solutions.”
Research history
In 2017, Vega established the first mercury research laboratory in the Peruvian Amazon in Puerto Maldonado through an innovative partnership with Peru’s Amazon Research Institute (IIAP) under the Ministry of Environment. A few years later, she collaborated with the Institute again to establish a second mercury lab in Iquitos, expanding research coverage to the northern Amazon region. Today, both labs serve as operational bases for CINCIA’s mercury field teams, where Vega leads research in the remote Putumayo and Nanay Rivers—accessible only by small planes and wooden riverboats—near the Colombian and Brazilian borders, as well as in the heavily impacted gold-mining zones of Madre de Dios.
The future of mercury research
“Claudia is a star and her selection as a TED Fellow puts an exclamation point on that and the central importance of the research being conducted at CINCIA,” said Miles Silman, the founding director of the Sabin Center for Environment and Sustainability at Wake Forest University. “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.”
Vega’s research deepens scientific understanding of mercury pollution and bridges science with actionable policy solutions. She collaborates with local communities, government agencies and international organizations to push for stronger mercury management strategies and improved environmental regulations.
“Claudia’s work has changed the way we understand mercury pollution in the Amazon—not just as an environmental issue, but as a public health and human rights crisis,” said Luis E. Fernandez, research professor of biology at Wake and CINCIA’s executive director. “This TED Fellowship will amplify her voice at a crucial time when the world must recognize the full impact of mercury contamination, from remote Amazonian rivers to global gold supply chains.”
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 Minamata Convention on Mercury in reducing mercury pollution worldwide. She is a principal author of a recently published UN report on monitoring mercury in and around gold mining sites, a major step forward in helping countries track pollution and meet their commitments under the convention.
Vega will be officially inducted at the TED2025 conference in Vancouver on April 7-11, where she will join a select group of global innovators and change-makers addressing the world’s most pressing challenges. To learn more about CINCIA’s work, explore ongoing research or support efforts to combat mercury pollution in the Amazon, visit the Sabin Family Center website.
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