Jaime Lerner was born in Curitiba, the capital of the state of Paraná in southern Brazil in 1937.  He is an architect and urbanist who graduated from the Federal University of Paraná in 1964 (Escola de Arquitetura da Universidade Federal do Paraná) and has since become world-renowned.

He began his career by helping develop the guiding principles for the Master Plan for Curitiba (1966-69) and then helped create one of the first city planning departments in Brazil, the  Instituto de Pesquisa e Planejamento Urbano de Curitiba – IPPUC, of which he became president in 1968-69.

He later became the three-time mayor of Curitiba (1971-75; 1979-83; 1989-92), probably one of the few city planners in the world to have that record.  From this office, Lerner led the urban revolution that made Curitiba the national and international reference in City Planning, mainly in the areas of transportation, the environment, in social services, and in urban design. 

In between his first two mayoral terms, in 1975 Lerner became a consultant on Urban Affairs for the United Nations.

Aftter completing his mayoral terms, Lerner twice was elected Governor of the state of Paraná (1995-98; 1999-2002), where he performed a social and economic transformation that altered the state’s profile with policies of  industrialization,  infrastructure modernization, job training, and quality of life improvements for urban and rural residents.

In recognition of his work in Curitiba and in Paraná, Lerner has received many awards and honorary titles, including the  United Nations’ UNEP Prize for the Environment (1990), the UNICEF Children and Peace Award (1996), the 2001 World Technology Award for Transportation (2001), the 2002 Sir Robert Mathew Prize for the Improvement of Quality of Human Settlements awarded by the International Union of Architects and the 2004 Volvo Environment Prize.

Lerner has made presentations at important conferences, such as the International Green Forum, in Osaka, Japan (1986); at the New York Academy of Sciences (1986); at the International congress of Architects in Chicago, IL (1993) and at the 53^rd Annual United Nations Conference (2000).

Outside the public limelight, Lerner has had an intense professional record in architecture and urbanism.  From the beginning of his career, when his team won the first prize at the competition for the Federal Police headquarters in the newly-built national capital Brasília (1967); and then the second prize at the Eurokursaal international competition in San Sebastian, Spain (1966); the Silver Medal at the International City Design Competition sponsored by the University of Wisconsin (1989), e numerous prizes by the Architects Institute of Brazil (Instituto de Arquitetos do Brasil – IAB).

In urbanism and city planning, he developed plans and master plans for  many cities in Brazil, including Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Recife, Salvador, Aracaju, Natal, Goiânia, Campo Grande and Niterói; as well as being a consultant for such other international cities such as Caracas (Venezuela), San Juan (Puerto Rico), Shanghai (China), Havana (Cuba), Seoul (South Korea).  He is also a consultant in Urban Affairs for the United Nations. 

From 2002 to 2005 he was the president of the International Union of Architects, where his primary goal was to promote the  “Celebration of Cities”, urging every nation and every culture in the world to propose solutions for the urban problems of their cities.