Dr Cuevas has been working for 38 years in the Department of Astronomical Instruments at UNAM’s Institute of Astronomy and has made a name for himself at home and abroad as the person behind instruments, designed and manufactured in Mexico, both for observatories in the country and international observatories. Under his leadership, the instruments group has developed the Verification Instrument for the GTC telescope in the Canary Islands, Spain, a contract that was won through an international tender process with a bid that was delivered on time and in due form in Spain. This is a successful case of the transfer of cutting edge technology developed in a strategic alliance between the UNAM Institute of Astronomy and CIDESI. Another high-technology instrument for the same telescope, developed in a collaboration involving the Institute of Astronomy and CIDESI, is FRIDA (inFRared Imager and Dissector for the Adaptive optics system of GTC), which will be the first instrument for the GTC to use the telescope’s adaptive optics system, in which Dr Cuevas has contributed with important technological applications. One outstanding innovation involving a unique art-science collaboration between the artist Narcissus Quagliata and Dr Cuevas, is the design, manufacture and installation of the lenses integrated into the Divinity in Light stained glass and other optical effects in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Rome. These lenses produce perfect images of the sun in the centre of the rotunda at the church’s entrance at equinox and solstice periods. This installation has been admired since the year 2000. Dr Cuevas, also a renowned educator, has supervised over 20 Master’s dissertations and doctoral theses by students in Mexico and abroad. He has published 116 articles in his speciality and has participated in numerous academic events. He has spoken at different forums of various kinds with the aim of disseminating knowledge of astronomy. He has also sat on various evaluative boards at UNAM, CONACYT and at other universities, and has assessed projects linking art and science.