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Dr. MEDINA-TANCO was born in Argentina, where he performed his undergraduate studies in Physics. He obtained his PhD in Astrophysics at the University of Sao Paulo (USP), Brazil. He held postdocs at the USP, and at the Universities of Cambridge, and Leeds in UK. He has been a professor at the Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (IAG) of the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil and an adjunct professor of Physics at Vanderbilt University, USA, as well as a visiting scholar at the RIKEN Institute in Japan and the IRAP Institute at Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, France. At present he is a Professor at the Institute of Nuclear Sciences of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where he leads the ultra-high energy cosmic ray group and is the Head of the Space Instrumentation Laboratory, LINX, which he created in 2009. He was the spokesperson for the Mexican collaboration at the Pierre Auger International Observatory. He was the scientific coordinator of the Extreme Universe Space Observatory (JEM-EUSO) International Collaboration for 10 years and is a member of its executive board; as such he led the Mexican participation in the development of various scientific stratospheric and space instruments under the coordination of CNES, NASA, ASI and ROSCOSMOS. He implemented the ATON platform for science and engineering payload onboard stratospheric balloons that operates regularly from Mexico and its larger version, Pixqui, which has flown in cooperation with CSBF-NASA. He was/is the leader for the NanoConnect and NanoSWAI satellites and the COLMENA lunar project, whose first mission, Colmena-1, was launched onboard the Peregrine lander on January 2024. He has been a member of the Commissions of Industry 4.0 and Smart Cities respectively, of the Confederation of Chambers of Industry of Mexico (CONCAMIN) and is a member of the Joint Business Council Mexico-Saudi Arabia (CCE-FSCC). He is a member of the Mexican Academy of Engineering, and an elected member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), he is a Cochair of the Space Physics Committee of IAA and is the coordinator of the international report "New Space Technologies at the Service of Social Needs" of the IAA, he is also Chair the Space Astrophysics Technical Committee (SATC) of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) and Vice-chair of the Space Universities Administrative Committee (SUAC) of the IAF.

MEDINA-TANCO is also a Member of the Action Group on Lunar Activities (ATLAC) of the United Nations Committee for the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) and member of the Advisory Council to the Academy of Aerospace Research at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He was a member of the Science Working Group (SWG) of the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG), and Scientific Adviser on space matters to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, as well as Advisor and promoter in the Mexican Congress of the project of Constitutional Reform empowering the Congress to legislate on matters of outer space activities. His work has been recognized in 2022 with the Fernando Alba Medal for his contributions to Experimental Physics in Mexico, with the Gold Eagle Medal for Global Leaders 2023 and Medal of Scientific Excellence 2024 and the PhD Honoris Causa awarded by the Hispanic World Writers Union (UHE), the Latin American Academy of Modern Literature, the World Academy of Literature, History, Art and Culture and the Unity of Nations Action for Climate Change Council (UNACCC) among others. The Global Leadership Association and the National Academy of Geography and History of Mexico named him Exemplary Mexican 2025. MEDINA-TANCO has tutored a total of 33 PhD, MSc and Diploma thesis and supervised 8 postdocs. He is the author of 252 articles in refereed scientific journals with more than 27 thousand citations and more than 500 communications to congresses.