Luis Manuel Cruz-Orive is a retired professor from the University of Cantabria in Santander (E). He was born in 1944 in Miranda de Ebro (Burgos, E), from a working-class family. In 1968 he graduated from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Agrónomos, and in 1970 from the Escuela de Estadística, both of the Complutense University of Madrid (E). In 1970 he moved to the University of Edinburgh (UK) to obtain the Diploma in Statistics (1971). There he was the sole student of David J. Finney in his Sampling Theory course. In 1974 he was awarded a PhD from the University of Sheffield (UK), (Department of Probability and Statistics, directed by J. Gani). Following a Science Research Council research assistantship in stereology and geometric probability, in 1976 he moved to the University of Berne (CH), to work in Ewald R. Weibel's group at the Institute of Anatomy. Motivated by challenging projects, he contributed to the development of stereology. Between 1979 and 1998 he wasa member of the teaching squad at 25 International Stereology Courses in Europe, USA, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong. Most modern stereological methods were inspired by these courses. In 1994 he obtained a Chair of Statistics at the University of Cantabria, where he moved with his wife Soledad and son Marcos. There he created a Laboratory of Stereology. He led four three-year research projects on stereology funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, and another four supported by national Spanish funds. In 1971 he was elected Member of the Biometric Society, and Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. Since 1981 he is a member of the Royal Microscopical Society and of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Microscopy (Oxford). He is Honorary Member of the International Society for Stereology and Image Analysis.