Presentation

Sergio Moraes Castanheira Brandão is a Brazilian independent TV producer, journalist and science communicator.

He is director general of VideoCiência, an independent production company he established in May 1987.  He is also International Organiser and Curator of Ver Ciencia, an international exhibition of science on TV, which takes place every year in Brazil, coinciding with the Brazilian National Week of Science and Technology.

Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1949, he graduated in Civil Engineering at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ in 1972 and did postgraduate studies in Pollution Control in England (1976).

His career as a journalist and science communicator began at the BBC World Service, in London, where he worked for seven years (1974-1981) at the Brazilian Section, as producer, reporter and presenter of radio programs broadcast to Brazil, mainly on science and technology subjects. 

His television career began in 1981 at the Globo TV Network, where he worked as a reporter for prime time programmes such as "Fantástico" and "Globo Reporter". In 1984 he participated in the creation of the first weekly science tv program in Brazil, "Globo Ciência" ("Globo Science"), working as producer, reporter and executive producer for seven years, until until 1991.

From 1992, he produced and presented other television programs such as Eco Realidade (Eco Reality) a journalistic science program on environment, broadcast live on national TV by the TV Educativa network.

His international experience as a reporter and producer includes science reports and documentaries to foreign television stations such as BBC (UK), NHK (Japan) and TF1 (France), among others.

In 1994, he created with his friend and partner Jose Renato Monteiro the Ver Ciencia ("Watch Science") International Exhibition of Science on TV, an non-competitive annual exhibition of science TV programs, whose mission is to promote and encourage the dissemination of scientific culture through television.

Between 2000 and 2005 he was consultant to a program with the same name of the exhiition Ver Ciencia broadcast weekly by TV Cultura network in the State of Sao Paulo. In 2005 and 2006 coordinated the production of the live TV show "Ao Ponto" aimed at teenager audiences and broadcast in Brazil by the Canal Futura educational and cultural channel.

In 2009, he produced and directed the series "Evolution, the Feast of Life", to mark the 150th anniversary of publication of the most famous work of Charles Darwin, the book "On the Origin of Species."

Alongside his career as a communicator of science on television, has also served as screenwriter and director of corporate videos and advertising campaigns.

For his dedication to science communication, Sergio M C Brandão won several awards in Brazil and abroad, such as the José Reis Award of Scientific Journalism (1986) given by the Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq), the Primo Rovis Prize (1991) of the Trieste International Foundation for the Progress and Freedom of Sciences, Italy, and two nominations of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences as the Brazilian candidate for the UNESCO Kalinga Prize for science communicators.

An expert in science communication through television, he is often invited to participate in conferences and seminars, and to give lectures, courses and workshops on the subject of science communication on television, in Brazil and abroad.