JOSE RAFAEL MONEO was born in Northern Spain in 1937 and holds a Masters Degree in Architecture from the Escuela Técnica Superior of Madrid.
He has received a considerable number of national and international awards, including the Pritzker Prize, the  Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Prince of Asturias Prize.

In 1985 Rafael Moneo was appointed Chairman of the Architecture Department of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, a position he held until 1990. In 1991 he was named Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design where he continues to teach. He combines his professional activity as an architect with that as lecturer, critic and theoretician. His writings have been published in the foremost professional magazines and the presentation of his work through lectures and exhibitions has taken him to numerous institutions on both sides of the Atlantic.