Antonio Lazcano is a Mexican

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 biology

Biology

Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

 researcher

Researcher

A researcher is somebody who performs research, the search for knowledge or in general any systematic investigation to establish facts. Researchers can work in academic, industrial, government, or private institutions.-Examples of research institutions:...

 and professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 of the School of Sciences at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

. He has studied the origin and early evolution

Evolution

Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...

 of life for more than 35 years.

Lazcano pursued his undergraduate and graduate studies at UNAM, where he focused on the study of prebiotic evolution and the emergence of life

Abiogenesis

Abiogenesis or biopoesis is the study of how biological life arises from inorganic matter through natural processes, and the method by which life on Earth arose...

. He has been professor-in-residence or visiting scientist in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. He has written several books in Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

, including The Origin of Life (1984) which became a best-seller with more than 600,000 sold copies. In addition, he has been a member of several advisory and review boards of scientific organizations, such as NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

, where he was a member of the NASA Astrobiology Institute

NASA Astrobiology Institute

The NASA Astrobiology Institute was established in 1998 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration "to develop the field of astrobiology and provide a scientific framework for flight missions". The NAI is a virtual, distributed organization that integrates astrobiology research and...

He served as president of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life, "ISSOL", for two terms, and is also the first Latin American scientist to occupy this position. A great honor, for Alexander Oparin, Stanley L. Miller and J. William Schopf, were also presidents of ISSOL.

Lazcano has devoted considerable efforts to promote scientific journalism and teaching. He also promotes the study of evolutionary biology and the origins of life, all over the world. (He has been professor-in-residence or visiting scientist in France, Spain, Cuba, Switzerland, Russia, and the United States).