Diego Rivera graduated in Biology in 1981. He presented his project in 1983 and received the Graduation Extraordinary Award in 1984. He received his Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Murcia in 1985 and received the Ph.D. Extraordinary Award in 1987. He was the scholarship holder of the “Plan de Formación” of the University Research Personnel between 1982 and 1985 under the Spanish Ministry of Education. He also received a postgraduate scholarship from IAESTE (Germany) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (France). He has been a regular professor in the Department of Plant Biology of the University of Murcia since 1990. Currently, he is Full Professor of Botany and Ethnobotany at the University of Murcia and Head of the Department of Plant Biology.  He is a fellow of the Linnaean Society and a member of the International Society of Horticultural Sciences, the American Botanical Council, the Society of Ethnobotany, the International Society of Ethnobiology, OPTIMA, and the International Association for Plant Taxonomy, among others.