Born in 1936, Prof. Balta Calleja was educated in Spain where he obtained his first degree in Physics at the University of Madrid. In 1958 he started his research work at the University of the Sorbonne in Paris on pioneering NMR studies of organic liquids relating to intermolecular effects. In 1959 he moved to the H.H. Wills Physics Laboratory in Bristol to work on crystallization and morphology of synthetic polymers. In 1962 he obtained a Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Bristol. In 1963 he was appointed Adjoint Professor of Electricity and Magnetism at the University of Madrid. Since 1970 hehas led a group on Macromolecular Physics at the Spanish Research Council. Presently, he is Professor of Physics and Director of the Institute for Structure of Matter, CSIC, in Madrid. He is Chairman of the Macromolecular Board of the European Physical Society and has also b een chairman of the Solid State Physics group of the Spanish Royal Society of Physics. He was awarded the Humboldt Research Award and the DuPont Research Award, both in 1994. He is, or has been a member of the Editorial Boards of Acta Polymerica, J. Macromolecular Science-Physics and Journal of Polymer Engineering. He is author of more than 280 papers and has contributions in several books. He is author of the book X-ray Scattering of Synthetic Polymers, Elsevier, 1989.
