The annual list of people who had a big impact on the scientific community and the world in 2024, published by Nature magazine.

THE Placide Mbalaan epidemiologist at the National Institute for Biomedical Research in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, raised the alarm about a deadly outbreak of the monkeypox virus in the country and accurately predicted the virus’s ability to spread beyond the country’s borders.

OR Anna Abalkinaa researcher at the Institute for East European Studies at the Free University of Berlin, was placed on a Russian watch list for her work, which seeks to uncover fraud in scientific publications, including plagiarism and paper mills, companies that publish fake papers by making them look like with original research.

The Chinese doctor at Shanghai Naval Medical University Huji Xu had a revolutionary approach to treating autoimmune diseases using gene-modified T-cells derived from a donor.

THE Ekkehard Peika physicist at Germany’s National Institute of Metrology, has recorded the first tick of a clock tuned to the frequency of an atomic nucleus, and it “promises” to one day bring technology that can surpass the accuracy of today’s atomic clocks.

THE Li Chunlaia geologist with China’s National Space Agency, was the first scientist to get his hands on lunar soil samples, which were delivered to Earth this year by the Chang’e 6 mission.

The astronomer Wendy Freedmanfrom the University of Chicago, presented results that could end a long-standing question about how fast the Universe is expanding.

O Remi Lam, researcher at Google DeepMind in San Francisco, used powerful artificial intelligence tools in weather forecasting to produce predictions that are faster and more accurate than conventional models.

During this year, the project was also recognized three people who defended important causes: h Kaitlin Kharasa doctoral student at the University of Toronto, helped run a campaign that resulted in the first pay increase for Canadian doctoral and postdoctoral researchers in two decades. The Swiss lawyer, Cordelia Bahrsuccessfully represented thousands of women in a landmark lawsuit, arguing that climate change is a human rights issue.

Finally, the Nobel laureate economist Muhammad Yunus responded to the call to become its interim leader Bangladeshfollowing a student-led revolution.