Julio M. del Hoyo-Meléndez holds a PhD in science and conservation of cultural heritage from the Department of Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain. He received a bachelor's and a master's degree in chemistry from the University of Puerto Rico and the University of Houston, respectively. He was a graduate intern in the Museum Research Laboratory of the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles, USA from 2005 to 2006. In 2007, he was awarded a predoctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute in Maryland (USA) for conducting research on the action of light on cultural heritage materials. He currently works as a conservation scientist in the Laboratory of Analysis and Non-Destructive Investigation of Heritage Objects of the National Museum in Krakow, Poland.