Jared Diamond (Boston, 1937) is the author, among other titles, of the great successes of informative science Weapons, Germs and Steel (awarded with the 1998 Pulitzer Prize), of the first version for the adult public of The Third Chimpanzee, Collapse and The world until yesterday. He is a Professor of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles, and has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He is awarded a scholarship by the MacArthur Foundation and has received the National Medal of Science.