Gianfranco Cariolaro was born in 1936 and graduated in Electrical Engineering at the University of Padova (Italy) in1960. He received the Libera Docenza in Electrical Communication in 1968 and was appointed full professor in 1975. Presently he is Professor Emeritus of Optical and Quantum Communications at the Department of Information Engineering of the University of Padova. His main research interests are in the fields of data transmission, cellular radios, deep space communications, optical and quantum communications, He is the author of several books, in particular Unified Signal Theory (Springer, 2011) and has cooperated with several industries, among them: Telettra (now Alcatel-Lucent), Italtel, RAI (the Italian broadcasting company), Hewlett-Packard, Snell and Wilcox, BBC, ST Microelectronics, Philips, Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA, Eutelsat.