Alberto Fernández Soto has a PhD in Sciences, specialized in Physics, from the University of Cantabria. He is currently an astronomer at the CSIC at the Institute of Physics of Cantabria (IFCA, CSIC-UC) and at the Associated Unit that the IFCA has with the University of Valencia. He previously worked in Australia, the United States and Italy. He studies the formation and evolution of galaxies and objects in the early universe, in particular developing techniques for measuring distances to distant objects. He has been a member of the teams responsible for the scientific exploitation of the Osiris camera (Gran Telescopio de Canarias), the Italian REM robotic telescope (located in Chile) and the design and exploitation of the new observatory in the Sierra de Javalambre (Teruel). In addition to maintaining an active work of scientific dissemination, he is the author together with Carlos Briones and José María Bermúdez de Castro of Orígenes: The universe, the life, the humans (Prismas Award for the best popular book published in Spain in 2015).