Mauricio Terrones obtained his B.Sc. degree in Engineering Physics with first class honours at Universidad Iberoamericana. In 1997 he obtained his doctorate degree with Sir Prof. Harold W. Kroto (Nobel Laureate, FRS) from University of Sussex (UK). He has co-authored more than 280 publications in leading journals, and holds > 10000 citations to his work. He has numerous awards including: the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, the Mexican National Prize for Chemistry, the Javed Husain Prize and the Albert Einstein medal from UNESCO, the TWAS Prize in Engineering Physics, the Carbon Prize by the Japanese Carbon Society, the Somiya Award by the International Union of Materials Research Societies, among others. Aged 42, his research now concentrates on the theory, synthesis and characterization of novel layered nanomaterials, including graphene. He is now distinguished Professor at Shinshu University, and Professor of Physics at Penn State University.