Marco Chiani (IEEE Fellow) was born in Rimini, Italy, in April 1964. He received the Dr. Ing. degree (summa cum laude) in electronic engineering and the Ph.D. degree in electronic and computer engineering from the University of Bologna, Italy, in 1989 and 1993, respectively.

He is a Full Professor in Telecommunications (since 2001) at the University of Bologna. During summer 2001, he was a Visiting Scientist at AT&T Research Laboratories, Middletown, NJ. Since 2003 he has been a frequent visitor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, where he presently holds a Research Affiliate appointment.

He was the first Director (2010-2013) of the Industrial Research Center on ICT at the University of Bologna.

He is leading the research unit of the University of Bologna on cognitive radio and UWB (European project EUWB), on Joint Source and Channel Coding for wireless video (European projects Phoenix-FP6, Optimix-FP7, Concerto-FP7), and is a consultant to the European Space Agency (ESA-ESOC) for the design and evaluation of error correcting codes based on LDPCC for space CCSDS applications.

His research interests are in the areas of information theory, wireless systems, statistical signal processing and quantum information. His contributions include also exponential bounds for the Gaussian error function, and the statistical distribution of the eigenvalues of random matrices.

He chaired, organized sessions and served on the Technical Program Committees at several IEEE international Conferences. In January 2006 he received the ICNEWS award “For Fundamental Contributions to the Theory and Practice of Wireless Communications”. He was the recipient of the 2008 IEEE ComSoc Radio Communications Committee Outstanding Service Award. He received the Communication Theory Symposium Best Paper Award at IEEE ICC 2008, the Best Paper Award at the 2007 IST Mobile & Wireless Communication Summit, the Best Paper Award at the Int. Wireless Commun. and Mobile Computing IWCMC 2006. He received the 2011 IEEE Communications Society Leonard G. Abraham Prize in the Field of Communications Systems, the 2012 IEEE Communications Society Fred W. Ellersick Prize for to the best article published in a Communications Society magazine, the 2012 IEEE Communications Society Stephen O. Rice Prize in the Field of Communications Theory.

He is the past chair (2002–2004) of the Radio Communications Committee of the IEEE Communication Society and past Editor of Wireless Communication (2000–2007) for the journal IEEE Transactions on Communications.

He served as chair (2013-14) of the international prize IEEE "Eric E. Sumner Award", assigned for outstanding contributions to communications technology.

He served as chair (2016-17) of the international prize IEEE "Kiyo Tomiyasu Award", assigned to recognize outstanding early to mid-career contributions to technologies holding the promise of innovative applications.

As a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE ComSoc (2011-2013) he gave lectures and seminars in several continents on wireless communication systems and networks.

Since 2011 he is a Fellow of the IEEE, named for “Contributions to wireless communication systems”.

In 2012 he has been appointed Distinguished Visiting Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, UK.