Walter Belardi is an associate Professor within the Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Parma. Prof. Belardi is one of the main pioneers in the field of hollow core antiresonant optical fibers, especially thanks to the very first theoretical conception, proposal, and fabrication, in 2013, of a revolutionary structure of hollow core optical fiber, later referred to as Nested Antiresonant Nodeless Optical Fiber. This optical fiber type is today the most important candidate for high capacity data transmission with low latency and loss. Moreover, Prof. Belardi has given major contributions to the development of simplified hollow core optical fibers for practical use in the mid-infrared spectral range.