Alejandro Maass Sepúlveda receives Chile’s 2025 National Prize for Exact Sciences
Santiago, September 2025. Mathematical engineer and mathematics PhD Alejandro Maass Sepúlveda has been awarded the 2025 National Prize for Exact Sciences, Chile’s highest state honour for scientists who have made outstanding contributions to fields such as mathematics, physics and astronomy.
Awarded under Law No. 19,169, the distinction highlights not only his outstanding career in pure and applied mathematics, but also his ability to transcend disciplinary boundaries, contributing to ecology and biology through new ways of modelling marine ecological diversity.
Maass, a principal investigator at the Millennium Institute Center for Genome Regulation (IM-CRG) and the Center for Mathematical Modeling (CMM), has led more than ten research projects and numerous collaborations that have established Chile as an international reference at the intersection of mathematics and the life sciences.
His work has shown how equations and mathematical models can become key tools for understanding relationships between species that coexist in an environment, and how this knowledge can help address climate change. In this field, he co-coordinated the Tara Oceans mission in Chile, an international scientific expedition that brought together science, art and education to share knowledge about the oceans and their role in the climate crisis.
Alejandro Maass is also a CNRS Fellow-Ambassador (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France), a distinction recognising his role in connecting Chilean science with leading research networks worldwide.
“This prize recognises mathematics’ capacity to engage with other disciplines and help solve the great challenges of our time.”
A leading scientist
An academic at the Universidad de Chile, Maass has chaired the National Council of Sciences, directed the university’s Department of Mathematical Engineering and played a leading role in training new generations of researchers. His leadership has helped strengthen mathematical research in Chile and orient it towards complex problems of global relevance.
IM-CRG Director Miguel Allende considers that “Dr Maass has a command of disciplines as diverse as mathematics, computer science and the biological sciences, and works at an expert level in each. This is a very unusual ability among specialists and gives him a particularly comprehensive view of scientific problems.”
For his part, CMM Director Héctor Ramírez said:
“Alejandro Maass is a source of pride for the CMM. His leadership has shaped the centre from his time as director to the present, when he continues as a principal investigator and Director of International Relations. He has raised the CMM’s profile through fundamental and applied research, with particular emphasis on his contribution to the study of oceans and genomics. His sustained work has enabled the centre to establish itself as a global reference, representing Chile in settings where his research has worldwide relevance. Today Chile recognises one of our own, and we feel proud that his work reflects the way the CMM approaches highly complex problems: with a local perspective and a global impact.”
The jury
The jury that awarded the distinction comprised Education Minister Nicolás Cataldo; Universidad de Chile Rector Rosa Devés; Council of Rectors representative Juan Yuz; Chilean Academy of Sciences President Sergio Lavandero; and the recipient of the 2023 National Prize for Exact Sciences, Jaime San Martín.
With this recognition, Alejandro Maass joins a list of distinguished Chilean scientists including José Maza, María Teresa Ruiz, Mónica Rubio, Ricardo Baeza and Eric Goles, all leading figures who have shaped the country’s scientific history.