Silvio Abrate was born in Savigliano (CN) on the 21th of march 1975. He graduated in Telecommunication Engineering at Politecnico di Torino in december 1999. He has been working for Alcatel, in Vimercate, since january 2001, for the Optical Networks Division, interested in SDH and WDM optical networks. Since february 2003 he is with Istituto Superiore Mario Boella with the role of technical coordinator of PhotonLab, the PHOtonic Technologies and Optical Networks LABoratory of ISMB and Politecnico di Torino.