Ricardo Miledi, one of the ten most quoted neuro-biologists of all time, was born in Mexico, D.F. in 1927. His career in science began in 1955 when, just before graduating in Medicine at the Universidad Autónoma de Mexico (UNAM), he joined one of the most active research groups in his country, part of the Instituto Nacional de Cardiología (the National Institute of Cardiology). He has been Professor of Biophysics at the University of London and distinguished professor of the University of California since 1984.

Many of Professor Miledi´s studies and breakthroughs in Neurobiology, especially those related to the mechanisms of synaptic and neuromuscular transmission, are considered to be classic throughout the world. His research in this field has proved basic to an understanding of how information is transmitted from the brain, and how this organ is affected by drugs and toxic substances. Over 450 publications are the tangible product of forty years of research devoted in the main to the primary functions of the nervous system: the transmission of information between cells.

He has been an honorary member of the Academia Nacional de Medicina de México (the National Academy of Medicine of Mexico) since 1995, and was appointed doctor honoris causa by the Universidad del País Vasco (the University of the Basque Country) in 1992. He has been a member of the Royal Society of London since 1980, and entered the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1986.