Marco Antonio Chaer Nascimento is a Professor of Physical Chemistry at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He studied chemistry at the School of Chemistry, University of Brazil and received his Ph.D. from California Institute of Technology (1977). He is a member of the Brazilian National Academy of Sciences, recipient of the Golden Medal of the Brazilian Chemical Society and of the Order of Scientific Merit, granted by the President of Brazil. He was a senior visitor at the University of Cambridge, UK (1984), visiting associate at the California Institute of Technology (1996) and Université Henri Poincaré, Nancy I, France (2000). He is a member of the editorial board of Progress in Theoretical Chemistry and Physics and member of the Scientific Board of the World Association of Theoretical and Computational Chemists (WATOC).