The scholarly publication Nature has presented a selection of ten individuals who were instrumental in shaping the most significant scientific stories in 2022.

Saleemul Huq, a Bangladeshi scientist, has made it onto the list for his work to get wealthier nations to pay for the losses and damages caused by climate change.

At the COP27 summit, where deliberations had continued for two extra days before attending states agreed to a “loss and damage” fund, Saleemul, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development at the Independent University, played an important role.

The “loss and damage” fund is the result of a nearly 30-year campaign, primarily led by Saleemul, for getting the wealthy and high-emitting nations to acknowledge their financial responsibility.

This will see countries pay billions to vulnerable states hit by extreme weather and rising sea levels as a result of climate change.

Saleemul developed a passion for science as he travelled around the world with his parents while they moved to different diplomatic postings, said the journal.

Growing up in Europe, Africa and Asia, Saleemul studied biochemistry and completed a PhD at Imperial College London, before returning to Bangladesh to find an environmental think tank, it mentioned.

By the 1990s, he had become active in international climate negotiations, as an adviser to climate-vulnerable countries, especially small island states, helping them to put their needs on the agenda in UN talks, it added.

The list also includes Dr Jane Rigby, an astronomer who helped launch NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope;

Yunlong Cao, Covid predictor; Svitlana Krakovska, a voice for Ukraine; Dimie Ogoina, a monkeypox watchman; Lisa McCorkell, a long-Covid advocate; Diana Greene Foster, an abortion fact-finder; António Guterres, a crisis diplomat; Muhammad Mohiuddin, a transplant trailblazer; and Alondra Nelson, a policy principal.

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