Back Juan Lerma Round Table I / Mesa Redonda I Juan Lerma initiated his career in 1979 at the "Ramón y Cajal" Hospital in Madrid, studying the neural circuits and cellular activities that process sensory-motor integration during paradoxical sleep (REM sleep). After obtaining his PhD degree in 1983, he established an independent laboratory in the same department until he moved (1987) to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in New York. In 1990, he returned to Madrid as Group Leader at the Instituto Cajal where he continued to make key contributions in the field of glutamate receptors in neuronal physiopathology. In 2004, he moved to the Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante, where he was Director (2007-16). He has been Chair of the Pan-European Committee of the International Brain Research Organization (2013-16), and President of the Spanish Society for Neuroscience (2011-13). He is currently Secretary General of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies, member of the Board of the European Brain Council, member of the Executive Committee of the Confederation of Spanish Scientific Societies, and Editor-in-Chief of Neuroscience.