Alberto Bononi is an Associate Professor in the Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, Universitࣂ di Parma, Parma, Italy, where he teaches courses on Probability Theory, Data Networks, and Optical Communications.

His research interests span from the performance evaluation of broadband optical networks, both packet- and circuit-switched, to the design of wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) long-haul terrestrial and submarine optical transmission systems, with emphasis onق optical amplifiers, on polarizaton mode dispersion (PMD), and on the optimization of dispersion maps for WDM nonlinear fiber propagation.

He got his Laurea degree in Ingegneria Elettronica (Honors) from the Universitࣂ degli Studi di Pisa in 1987. Heق got his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University, NJ, USA, in 1992 and in 1994, respectively. From 1994 to 1996, he was a Tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Prof. Bononi has been a TPC member of the IEEE/OSA OFC Conference, Access Networks Subcommittee (2002-2003), and of the IEEE/OSA APOC Conference Optical Amplifiers Subcommittee (2005-2007).

Prof. Bononi is author or co-author of more than 110 scientific journal and conference papers.قق He is editor and co-author of the book Optical Networking, Springer, London, 1999, and co-author of the book Teoria della Probabilitࣂ e Variabili Aleatorie con Applicazioni, McGraw-Hill Milano, 2005. He is currently an associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Communications for the area of Optical Communications and Networks.

Galen Sasaki received his B.S. from the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Uiversity of Hawaii at Manoa in 1981, and received his M.S. and Ph.D. from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1984 and 1987, respectively.

He was an Assistant since 1992, he has been an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin from 1987 until 1992.ق Dr. Sasaki was a visiting researcher at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC (Summer of 1990), IBM Watson Research during the Summers (Summers 1995 and 1996), and Tellabs (Summer 1997). He was a consultant for Fujitsu Laboratories of America, Nortel, and Skyware.ق He was an associate editor for the IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking and the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, and was a co-editor of an Optical Networks issue of the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications.

He has been on the Co-Chair of the Technical Program Committee (TPC) for Broadnets 2004 and the Optical Network Symposia for ICCCN 2007.ق He has also been a member of TPCs for IEEE INFOCOM, OFC, and IEEE ICC.

Naoaki Yamanaka graduated from Keio University, Japanق where he received B.E., M.E. and Ph.D. degrees in engineering in 1981, 1983 and 1991, respectively.

In 1983, he joined Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation's (NTT's) Communication Switching Laboratories, Tokyo Japan, where he was engaged in research and development of a high-speed switchingق system and high-speed switching technologies for Broadband ISDN services. Since 1994, he has been active in the development of ATM base backbone network and system including Tb/s electrical/optical backbone switching as NTT's Distinguished Technical Member. He moved to Keio University, Department of Information and Computer Science in 2004. He is now researchingق future optical IP network, and optical MPLS router system. He is currently a Professor in the Dept. of Information and Computer Science,ق Keioق University, Japan and representative of Photonic Internet Labs. He has published over 122 peer-reviewed journal and transaction articles, written 82ق international conference papers, and been awarded 174 patentsق including 17 international patents.

Dr. Yamanaka received Best of Conference Awards fromق the 40th, 44th, and 48th IEEE Electronic Components and Technologyق Conference in 1990, 1994 and 1998, TELECOM System Technology Prize from the Telecommunications, Advancement Foundation in 1994, IEEE CPMT Transactions Part B: Best Transactions Paper Award in 1996 and IEICE Transaction Paperق award in 1999. Dr. Yamanaka is technical editor of IEEE Communication Magazine, broadband network area editor of IEEE Communication Surveys,قIEEE GLOBECOMق2004 Optical Network and System Symposium Technical Program Co-Chair,ق former Editor of IEICE Transaction, vice director of Asia Pacific Board at IEEE Communications Society as well aقas board member of IEEE CPMT Society. Dr. Yamanaka is an IEEE Fellow and a member of the IEICE.