Celeste Saulo

Celeste Saulo has served as Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) since 1 January 2024. Elected at the Nineteenth World Meteorological Congress, she is the first woman and the first South American to lead the Organization. Prior to this appointment, she had headed Argentina's national meteorological service since 2014 and held the position of First Vice-President of the WMO. A full professor at the University of Buenos Aires and a researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council, she specialises in numerical weather prediction, land–atmosphere interactions, and heavy precipitation systems in South America. A graduate of the University of Buenos Aires, where she obtained her doctorate in 1996, she also chaired the Department of Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences from 2009 to 2013. Under her leadership, Argentina's national meteorological service was modernised around three priorities: strengthening observation networks, improving forecasts, and enhancing communication with society. Deeply committed to international cooperation and training, she has supported the integration of early-career scientists and contributed to the development of the YESS network dedicated to young Earth-system researchers.