Erich Leitgeb received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. (with honors) from Graz University of Technology in 1994 and 1999, respectively. From 1982 to 1984, he attended military service, including training to become a communications officer in the Austrian army, and he is still active as an expert in military communications (current military rank: Lieutenant-Colonel). In 1994, he started research in optical communications at the Department of Communications and Wave Propagation (TU Graz). Since January 2000, he has been a project leader of international research projects in the field of optical communications, and he established and leads the research group for Optical Communications at TU Graz and joined several international projects (such as COST 270, COST 291, COST IC0802, the EU project SatNEx and SatNEx 2, and IC1101; currently, he participates in MP1401, CA15127, and CA16220) and ESA projects in different functions. Since 2011, he has been a Professor of Optical Communications and Wireless Applications at the Institute of Microwave and Photonic Engineering at Graz University of Technology. Erich Leitgeb is the author or co-author of seven book chapters, around 50 journal publications, 150 peer-reviewed conference papers, around 45 invited talks, and more than 70 international scientific reports.