Francesco Baldini graduated in physics from the University of Florence magna cum laude in 1986 and joined the Optical Fiber Group at the Institute of Electromagnetic Wave of CNR in Florence (now Institute of Applied Physics), where he is presently Research Director. His activity has been mainly devoted to the design and development of optical sensors for chemical and biochemical detection. Author of more than 200 publications in International Journals, in scientific books and in International Conference Proceedings, he delivered more than 30 plenary/invited talks at international conferences. He is/was coordinator and/or responsible of many international and national projects in the field of optical chemical and biochemical sensing. Appointed in 2009 fellow of SPIE for “his achievements in biological and chemical sensing in biomedicine”, in 2023 became also fellow of the European Optical Society. He was President of the Italian Society of Optics and Photonics (SIOF) for the biennium 2015-2016.