Antonio Lazcano (UNAM, Mexico City) was twice President of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life, the first Latin American scientist to occupy this position, and has served on a number of advisory boards, including ones for NASA and other international organizations. He has studied the origin and early evolution of life for over 30 years and is the author of several books published in Spanish, including The Origin of Life, with over 800,000 copies sold. His current research interests include the chemistry of the origin of life, and the use of phylogenomic databases to reconstruct early stages of cell evolution. He has received three Honoris causa degrees, from the University of Milano (Italy) in 2008, in 2015 from the University of Valencia (Spain) and another one from the Universidad Autónoma de Michoacán (Mexico). In 2014 he was elected to the Colegio Nacional, the highest academic and cultural distinction in Mexico.