EMMANUEL DESURVIRE has been involved in optical telecommunications for nearly twenty years, starting with a PhD work on Raman fiber amplifiers at Thomson-CSF in 1983, followed by post-doctoral research at Stanford University. He then joined AT&T Bell Laboratories for five years, where he led the early investigation and development of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA). For his pioneering contributions to EDFAs, he received several national and international awards including the 1994 Prize from the International Commission for Optics and the 1998 Benjamin Franklin Medal in engineering. After a two-year professorship at Columbia University, he joined Alcatel where he conducted research on long-haul soliton transmission and all-optical regeneration, then 40Gbit/s systems development. He also created and directed a corporate program to foster synergies between experts and promote innovation. An IEEE Fellow, he has authored or coauthored more than 200 technical publications, four books, and over thirty patents.