Juan Luis Arsuaga Ferreras (Madrid, 1954) holds a degree and PhD in Biological Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid and is Professor of Palaeontology at the same university.
On 8 April 1993 he was on the cover of Nature magazine for the article on the discovery, in 1992, of the most complete human skull in the human fossil record, skull number 5, which is the skull of Homo heidelbergensis. Member of the Research Team of the Pleistocene Sites of the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain) since 1982, under the direction of Emiliano Aguirre Enríquez, and since 1991 co-director together with José María Bermúdez de Castro and Eudald Carbonell de Castro of the Team that has been awarded the 1997 Prince of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research and the 1997 Castilla y León Award for Social Sciences and Humanities.
On 23 July 2008, he was awarded the "Antonio de Sancha" prize by the Madrid Publishers' Association for his defence of culture through scientific dissemination. The Atapuerca findings have revealed new information about the first humans to inhabit Europe. This contrasts with the secrecy surrounding the excavations at Orce (Granada, Spain), where human tools have been found that predate those found at Atapuerca.
He is a member of the Musée de l'Homme de Paris, the International Association for the Study of Human Palaeontology. He is Vice-President of the Commission on Human Palaeontology and Palaeoecology of INQUA (International Union for Quaternary Research). He has lectured at the universities of London, Cambridge, Zurich, Rome, Arizona, Philadelphia, Berkeley, New York and Tel Aviv.