Full Professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, where he has served as Academic Vice-Rector and Dean of the Faculty of Biological Sciences.

He obtained the title of Biochemist at the University of Chile (1972) and the PhD in Molecular Biology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York (1978).

Full member of the Chilean Academy of Sciences, The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Council for Culture, among others.

She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1996.

Author of approximately 100 scientific publications in the field of enzymology and expression of fungal and bacterial genomes and approximately 50 publications relating to science and society.

Lately he has focused his interest on topics of science and religion.