INPA researcher and SPA Lead Author is the first Brazilian to receive international medal for contributions to fish science
Adalberto Luis Val, a leading figure in the study of the physiological adaptations of Amazonian fish, will be awarded the Le Cren Medal, granted by the Fisheries Society of the British Isles. The ceremony will take place on July 30 in England.
Biologist Adalberto Luis Val, a researcher at the National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA), former member of the Science Steering Committee and Lead Author of the Science Panel for the Amazon (SPA), has been announced as a recipient of the Le Cren Medal, an award granted by the Fisheries Society of the British Isles (FSBI) to researchers and teams who have made outstanding contributions to the biology, conservation and public understanding of fish worldwide. With nearly five decades of work in the Amazon, Val has built a career dedicated to the study of Amazonian fish, especially their physiological adaptations to extreme environments. The award ceremony will take place on July 30 at the University of Southampton, in England.
Val is the first Brazilian to receive the medal, created in honor of David Le Cren, a British biologist regarded as one of the classic figures in fish ecology. The award represents recognition from one of the leading international scientific societies in the field and gives global visibility to science produced in the Amazon.
The relevance of Val’s research lies in showing how Amazonian fish survive in one of the most diverse and dynamic aquatic environments on the planet. By investigating how species from the Amazon basin respond to variations in oxygen, temperature, acidity, floods, droughts and other environmental stressors, his work helps scientists understand the biological limits of aquatic life in a context of climate change. In a world increasingly marked by warming, extreme events and biodiversity loss, the Amazon studied by Val functions as a natural laboratory for understanding the future of tropical aquatic ecosystems.
What is the Le Cren Medal?
The Le Cren Medal is one of the distinctions awarded by the FSBI, a British scientific society dedicated to fish biology and fisheries science. It is named in honor of E. David Le Cren, a British biologist associated with the Freshwater Biological Association and one of the classic figures in fish ecology, known for fundamental studies on fish development, growth and body condition. By receiving the Le Cren Medal, a researcher is recognized not only for scientific output, but for a broad and lasting contribution to the advancement, application and social circulation of knowledge about fish.
Over the years, the medal has recognized names and initiatives such as Bob Wootton, Bob McDowall, the FishBase consortium, Isabelle M. Côté, Peter A. Henderson and Oliver Crimmen. Adalberto Val’s selection for the award marks the first time the medal has been granted to a researcher from outside the Anglophone axis.
Who is Adalberto Val?
Born in Campinas, in the interior of São Paulo state, Adalberto Val arrived in Manaus in 1981, together with his wife, researcher Vera Maria Fonseca de Almeida-Val, to pursue his master’s and doctoral studies at INPA in Freshwater Biology and Inland Fisheries.
In 1982, he joined the institute as a staff researcher, where he consolidated his career over 44 years. Together with Vera, he founded the Laboratory of Ecophysiology and Molecular Evolution (LEEM), a reference center for studies on physiology, adaptation and evolution of Amazonian fish. He currently coordinates research projects aimed at understanding how climate change affects fish and aquatic life in the world’s largest river basin.
Val is the author of more than 280 scientific articles, 22 books and 78 book chapters, and has supervised dozens of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. His work has accumulated more than 10,000 citations and has been recognized with major national and international awards, including the Grand Cross of the Brazilian National Order of Scientific Merit and the Award of Excellence from the American Fisheries Society.
Val has contributed to the Science Panel for the Amazon (SPA) since its inception, acting as a Lead Author to chapters of both the Amazon Assessment Report 2021 and the Amazon Assessment Report 2025. He was also Lead Author to the Policy Brief “Conserving the Amazon’s Freshwater Ecosystems’ Health and Connectivity” and was a member of the SPA’s Science Steering Committee.
Further reading on his research
Global change and physiological challenges for fish of the Amazon today and in the near future
In this review article, Adalberto Val and Chris Wood discuss how warming, oxygen loss, acidification and other environmental changes may affect Amazonian fish.
This article uses the extreme drought of 2023 as a starting point to explain why Amazonian fish died en masse in exceptionally warm and oxygen-poor waters. It offers a direct bridge between laboratory research and the visible impacts of climate change on Amazonian rivers.
Overcoming the coupled climate and biodiversity crises and their societal impacts
Published in Science, with Hans-Otto Pörtner and other international researchers, this article discusses why the climate and biodiversity crises must be addressed in an integrated way, connecting science produced in the Amazon with the global debate on sustainability.
