diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 480089744..f7518166c 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -78,7 +78,10 @@ def build_extension(self, ext):
             "-DCMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY=" + os.path.join(extdir, "impactx"),
             "-DCMAKE_VERBOSE_MAKEFILE=ON",
             "-DCMAKE_PYTHON_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY=" + extdir,
+            # CMake FindPython.cmake
             "-DPython_EXECUTABLE=" + sys.executable,
+            # pybind11 FindPythonLibsNew.cmake
+            "-DPYTHON_EXECUTABLE=" + sys.executable,
             ## variants
             "-DImpactX_COMPUTE=" + ImpactX_COMPUTE,
             "-DImpactX_FFT:BOOL=" + ImpactX_FFT,