Michel Le Bellac is Emeritus Professor at the University of Nice and a well-known elementary particle theorist. He graduated from the Ecole Normale Superieure in 1962, before conducting research with CNRS. In 1967 he returned to the University of Nice and was appointed Full Professor of Physics in 1971, a position he held for over 30 years. His main fields of research have been the theory of elementary particles and field theory at finite temperatures. He has published four other books in French and three other books in English, including Thermal Field Theory (Cambridge University Press, 1996) and Equilibrium and Non-equilibrium Statistical Thermodynamics (with Fabrice Mortessagne and G. George Bartouni, Cambridge University Press, 2004).