About me

I am a Brazilian physicist and Assistant Professor at the Department of Atmospheric Sciences of the Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences (IAG) - University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil. I hold a Ph.D. degree in Physics, obtained at the Institute of Physics of the University of São Paulo, on September 15th, 2021, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Paulo Artaxo. During my Ph.D., I worked focused on the effects and connections between meteorology and ultrafine aerosols (particles with diameters below 50 nm) in central Amazon, with measurements conducted at the ATTO (Amazon Tall Tower Observatory) site. I also spent 13 months working at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPIC), in Mainz, Germany, supervised by Dr. Christopher Pöhlker. My Ph.D. thesis (in English) can be accessed here! I also hold a Master's degree in Applied Physics, obtained at the São Carlos Institute of Physics of USP and Embrapa Instrumentation, under the supervision of Dr. Paulino Ribeiro Villas Boas, and a bachelor in Physics, obtained at Department of Physics of the Federal University of São Carlos, whose undergraduate research was also supervised by Dr. Paulino Ribeiro Villas Boas. My Msc. Thesis (in Portuguese) can be accessed here.

Research Group

Research interests

My research focuses on the interactions between atmospheric processes, aerosol physical and chemical properties, greenhouse gases, and the Earth's surface. I am particularly interested in the formation and evolution of atmospheric aerosols, including new particle formation, aerosol aging, and their optical and radiative effects on the atmosphere and climate.

A complementary component of my research investigates greenhouse gases and the urban carbon cycle, as well as their interactions with meteorology, air pollution, land use, and vegetation. I combine long-term observations, field measurements, atmospheric transport analysis, statistical methods, and machine-learning approaches to investigate these processes across contrasting environments, ranging from the Amazon, Cerrado, and Atlantic Forest biomes to densely populated urban regions such as the Metropolitan Area of São Paulo.

My work seeks to understand how natural processes, anthropogenic emissions, and land-use change interact to influence atmospheric composition, air quality, and climate.

My research spans the following areas:

• Atmospheric aerosols: formation, transformation, transport, removal, and radiative effects in tropical forests and urban environments.

• Greenhouse gases and the carbon cycle: sources, sinks, transport, and variability in natural and urban environments.

• Atmosphere-surface interactions: relationships among air pollution, greenhouse gases, meteorology, vegetation, land-use and land-cover change, and nature-based solutions.

• Data science for atmospheric research: statistical and machine-learning methods applied to air pollution, aerosols, greenhouse gases, and their interactions with meteorology and land use.

Below are some highlights from my research:

Franco et al., 2025 (Nature Communications)

Franco et al., 2022 (Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics)

Teixeira, Andrade, Kumar and Franco, 2026 (Atmospheric Pollution Research)

Watch here my recent public seminar about land use change in the Amazon: amplifying greenhouse gas emissions and drought conditions.

Scientific Metrics: Orcid, Scopus, Google Scholar, Lattes Curriculum, Publons, Research Gate

Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) photographed by me near the Rhine River in Mainz, Germany.