Dr. Radman was born in Split in 1944. He completed his undergraduate degree in biology at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, University of Zagreb, followinig which he obtained his PhD at the University of Brussels where he subsequently spent ten years as a professor. He spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, and since 1982 lives and works in Paris. He is a professor in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Paris and head of the Laboratory for Evolutionary and Molecular Genetics in the Necker Institute in Paris. In October 2002 he became a full member of the French Academy of Sciences, the first Croat to do so in the Academy's history. He is also a member of the European Academy of Arts and Sciences, the World Academy of Science and an EMBO scientist. He is also founder and director of the Mediterranean Institute for Life Sciences. He has published over 200 scientific articles, described over 25 novel discoveries which have been cited over a thousand times and is the recipient of 12 international science awards.

Miroslav Radman achieved international fame in 1989 when he demonstrated that the genetic wall between organisms could be overcome. Genetically crossing two species of bacteria which had not mixed for over 150 million years he discovered the molecular mechanism for the origin of new species, how a single species can give rise to two new species. In 2006, together with three Croatian scientists, Dr. Ksenija Zahradka, Dr. Dea Slade and Dr. Mirjana Petranovic he discovered the process by which the bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans is able to renew itself.

The lecture series Eminent Scientists at RBI is a forum for gathering RBI scientists as well as those from the wider academic community to hear leading Croatian and international scientists talk about cutting edge research.