Jesús M. Martínez de Ilarduya was born in 1959 in Vitoria-Gasteiz. He did his undergraduate studies at the University of Zaragoza (1981) and his PhD at the University of Alcalá (1987) under the supervision of Pascual Royo and Antonio Otero. After a postdoctoral stay in Sheffield with Peter M. Maitlis, he moved in 1989 to the University of Valladolid where he is Full Professor.

His research studies include dynamic NMR spectroscopy of organometallic complexes and the study of reaction mechanisms.