Manuel de León is a Research Professor at CSIC, his work has been mainly devoted to the study of Differential Geometry and its applications to Mechanics and Mathematical Physics (about 350 papers and 5 monographs). He has been the director of 13 PhD students, and is currently a member of several Editorial Boards and Scientific Committees and Director and Founder of Geometric Mechanics (World Scientific). He has been Founder and Director of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (ICMAT). He is also a member of the Real Academia de Ciencias de España (of which he is Academic Treasurer and Director of ESTALMAT), of the Real Academia Canaria de Ciencias and of the Real Academia Galega de Ciencias . Coordinator of the Spanish Committee of the World Mathematical Year 2000, President of the Spanish Committee of Mathematics (CEMAT), 2004-2007, President of the International Congress of Mathematicians ICM2006-Madrid, member of the Executive Committee of the International Mathematical Union, IMU (2007-2014) and of the Executive Board of the International Council for Science, ICSU, now International Science Council, ISC (2014-2018). He is Coordinator of the Spanish Committee for the ISC and President of the International Relations Commission of the Royal Academy of Sciences.