After obtaining his degree in mathematics and astronomy at the University of Vienna, Martin Balluch obtained a PhD in mathematical physics at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. He then worked at the Institute of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge in England. From 2000 to 2005 he studied philosophy at the University of Vienna and obtained his second PhD with a dissertation on animal rights philosophy. He became politically active in 1978 as a 13-year-old in a campaign against nuclear power plants. Since then, he never ceased to work for environmental and animal rights causes. In 1985 he organized events against animal testing at the University of Vienna. He was responsible for numerous events regarding animal rights at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. In 1989 he began an ongoing animal rights campaign in England, which he continued after his return to Austria in 1997. Since 2002, Martin Balluch is the chairman of the Association Against Animal Factories (Verein Gegen Tierfabriken). In his work as an environmental and animal rights activist, spanning over 3 decades, he participated in many acts of civil disobedience and was arrested 25 times. He was vegetarian since the early 1980s and lives vegan since 1989. Together with other people he formed the Vegan Society Austria (Vegane Gesellschaft Österreich) in 1999. He is the author of Die Kontinuität von Bewusstsein: Das naturwissenschaftliche Argument für Tierrrechte (2005), Widerstand in der Demokratie: Ziviler Ungehorsam und konfrontative Kampagnen (2009; also published in Slovenian: Upor v Demokraciji) and Tierschützer. Staatsfeind: In den Fängen von Polizei und Justiz (2011). In January 2012, Martin Balluch received the Myshkin international ethics award for his animal rights work and in recognition of his role in the 14-month long court process against animal rights activist, where he proved that animal rights activism is not an act of terrorism.