Dr. José C. del Río is a senior researcher at the Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology of Seville (IRNAS-CSIC), Spain. After accomplishing his PhD in chemistry at the University of Seville in 1989, he completed several postdoctoral stays at Oklahoma University (USA), the University of Bristol (UK), and Pennsylvania State University (USA). His research activity is aimed at the chemistry of the plant cell-wall components and the study of the mechanisms of their chemical, microbial, and/or enzymatic transformation. He has extensive expertise in the structural characterization of lignins from woody and nonwoody plants. His investigations led to the discovery of different phenolic compounds derived from outside of the canonical monolignol biosynthetic pathway, namely, the flavonoid and stilbene pathways, which behave as authentic lignin monomers, and challenged the traditional definition of lignin. This experience resulted in the publication of nearly 250 papers and the issuing of several patents of invention.