Fausto Fantini received the "laurea" degree in electronic engineering from the University of Bologna, Italy, in 1971. From 1973 to 1987, he was with Telettra, Vimercate, working as a reliability engineer and, from 1978 to 1987, with the same company as the Head of the Quality Department in Bologna. In 1987, he joined the SSSUP S. Anna, Pisa, as an Associate Professor of Electronics. From 1990 to 1997 he was Professor of Microelectronics at the University of Parma, where he was also the Director of the Research Centre on Materials and Information Technology (M.T.I.). Since 1997, he has been a Professor of Electronics at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. His research interests cover various aspects of semiconductor device physics and reliability, including corrosion, electromigration, metal/semiconductor interaction and hot carriers. He has published over 200 technical papers. He has been one of the founders of the ESREF conference in 1990 and he is currently the Regional Editor of Microelectronics Reliability and a member of the Editorial Board of Journal of Physics D. He is a Member of IEEE and a Fellow Member of the IOP (UK).