Helena Nader

Helena Bonciani Nader (born November 5, 1947) is a Brazilian biomedical scientist based at the Federal University of São Paulo. She served as president of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science from 2011 to 2017. She works in glycobiology, specialising in the characterisation of proteoglycans. She is a member of The World Academy of Sciences.

Early life and education Nader was born in São Paulo, to a family of Syrian, Lebanese and Italian descent. She spent her childhood in São Paulo and Curitiba. She was a high school student in the United States. She studied biomedical sciences at the Federal University of São Paulo and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1970. Nader earned a doctorate at the Federal University of São Paulo in 1974. Her work involves nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and fragment analysis. She holds visiting professorships at Loyola University Medical Center and The W. Alton Jones Cell Science Center. She was the third woman to hold the position, after Carolina Bori and Glaci Zancan. She held the position for three terms, handing over the position in 2017.

Awards and honours 2002 Class Commander of the National Order of Scientific Merit 2005 Honorary Professorship at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro 2008 Grand Cross Class of the National Order of Scientific Merit 2013 Brazilian Navy Merit Medal Tamandaré 2016 Nuclear National Energy Commission, Felippe Sheep Medal 2018 Federation of Experimental Biology Societies, Science Service Award

Books 2015 Sulfated Polysaccharides (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the Post Genomic Era)