Pedro Buć Calderón was born on September 18, 1951 in Iquique (Chile). He did the primary school in Iquique and the secondary degree in Santiago. He got a degree of Pharmacy at the University of Chile and a PhD degree at the Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium). He made postgraduate studies in Heidelberg (Germany); Brussels (Belgium) and Minnesota (United States). He was Professor of Toxicology and Director of the research group on Toxicology and Cancer Biology at the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium. He is the author of over 100 scientific publications and has been serving as external referee for peer reviews and as member of editorial board. He has directed 13 doctoral theses. He has been invited to give keynotes at various international conferences in several European countries, United States, Japan, China, Australia, Brazil, Cuba and Chile. He has been invited to give lectures in the Biochemistry PhD program at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (Florianópolis, Brazil) and the University of Chile. In 2009 he received the degree of Doctor Honoris cause from the Universidad Arturo Prat. His main research is focused in the study of molecular mechanisms inducing cancer cell death. In last years he has dedicated part of his research activities to the study of natural products isolated from plants of the North Chilean desert as therapeutic agents against cancer.
