Alexis Mendez received a PhD. degree in Electrical Engineering from Brown University, USA in 1992. He is president of MCH Engineering LLC – a consulting firm specializing in optical fiber sensing technology. Dr. Mendez was the former Group Leader of the Fiber Optic Sensors Lab within ABB Corporate Research (USA) where he led R&D activities for the development of fiber sensors for use in industrial plant, oil & gas, and high voltage electric power applications. He has written 65 technical publications, taught multiple short courses on fiber sensing, holds 5 US patents and is recipient of an R&D100 award. Dr. Mendez is a member of the OFS International Steering Committee, a Fellow of SPIE and was past Chairman of the 2006 International Optical Fiber Sensors Conference (OFS-18), and past Technical Chair of the 2nd Workshop on Specialty Optical Fibers and their Applications (WSOF-2). He is also member of the ISHMII (International Society for Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructure) Committee, as well as VP of the IEEE Fiber Optic Sensors Standards Committee. He is co-editor of the “Specialty Optical Fibers Handbook”, and co-author of SPIE’s “Fiber Optical Sensors Book—Fundamentals & Applications, 4th Ed.”.