Peter Schuster, born 07.03.1941, received his Ph.D. (sub auspiciis praesidentis) in Chemistry and Physics from the University of Vienna in 1967. His professional career includes: Postdoctoral assistant with Prof. Manfred Eigen at the Max Planck Institute of Physical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany, 1968-1969, Habilitation in Theoretical Chemistry at the "Universität Wien", 1971, Full professor of Theoretical Chemistry at the "Universität Wien", 1973-2009, Head of the Institute of Theoretical Chemistry at the Universität Wien, 1973-1992 and 1996-2010, External Faculty member of the Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, USA, 1991-2003 and 2004-2013, and External Professor emeritus of this institute, since 2013, Founding director of the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology in Jena, Germany, 1992-1995, Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, since 1984. He was Vice-President of this academy in the years 2000 – 2003 and President 2006-2009, Member of the “Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina, Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften”, since 1993. He was member of the Presiding Committee of this academy in the years 2001-2006, Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences USA, since 2009 Member of the Academia Europaea, London, since 2009 Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), since 2014 Professor emeritus of the “Universität Wien”, since 2009. Peter Schuster is a member of the Springer Complexity and Synergetics editorial boards and has been Editor-in-Chief of the journal "Complexity", 2001-2016.