Luc Thévenaz is professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne (EPFL). His research topics include Brillouin-scattering fiber sensors, nonlinear fiber optics, slow and fast light and laser spectroscopy in gases. In 1998, he became Expert Scientist to the company Orbisphere Laboratories SA in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and in 2000 he co-founded Omnisens, a company that develops photonic instrumentation. He is Chairman of the European COST Action 299 "FIDES: Optical Fibers for New Challenges Facing the Information Society", member of the Consortium in the FP7 European Project GOSPEL "Governing the speed of light" and author or co-author of some 300 publications and 5 patents. He is also a Fellow of the Optical Society of America.