He received his undergraduate degree in Geology from the Universidad de Oviedo, Spain, and a Ph.D. degree in Geological Sciences, with specialty in paleontology, from the University of Oregon, USA. Since 2009, he has been a professor at The University of Alabama, teaching courses in general geology, paleontology, and biomineralization. His current research interests are on biomineralization and (nano-) geochemistry, mainly in the understanding of environmental and climate proxies as recorded in biogenic minerals, and the development of microscopy techniques for the characterization of Recent and fossil biominerals. Dr. Perez-Huerta recently received a NSF-EAR grant to develop the technique of atom probe tomography (APT) for applications in Geosciences.