Maria Elena Montero-Cabrera is a Senior Researcher at the Advanced Materials Research Center (CIMAV, Chihuahua, Mexico). She earned her B.Sc. in physics at the University of Havana (Cuba) and completed a Ph.D. in nuclear physics at the Unified Institute for Nuclear Research "Dubna" (Russia). In Cuba, she worked at the Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology. She was Head of the Department of Nuclear Physics, President of the Cuban Physical Society, and Cuba's representative in the Pugwash Movement for Peace and World Affairs. In Mexico, at CIMAV, she has focused on teaching and research in environmental radiological surveillance and the structural analysis of materials by means of synchrotron light. She is the author or co-author of 98 articles and three books. She has directed 50 graduate theses.