Information Theory and Coding

Marcelo Sampaio de Alencarwas born in Serrita, Brazil, in 1957. He received his bachelor degree in electrical engineering, from the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Brazil, 1980, his master degree in electrical engineering, from the Federal University of Paraiba (UFPB), Brazil, 1988 and his Ph.D. from the University of Waterloo, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Canada, 1993. He has 47 years of engineering experience, and 37 years as an IEEE Member, currently as a life senior member. Marcelo Alencar has supervised 7 post-doctoral researchers, 23 doctoral thesis, 36 master dissertations, two graduate monographies and several undergraduate students. He is the founder and president of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Communications (Iecom). He has published over 560 engineering and scientific papers, and 31 books. He has also written chapters for 14 books. Marcelo S. Alencar has contributed in different capacities to the several international scientific journals and he has been involved as a volunteer with several IEEE and SBrT activities, including being a member of the Advisory or Technical Program Committee for several events. He was a columnist of the traditional Brazilian newspaper Jornal do Commercio for two decades, and he was vice-president external relations of SBrT. He is a member of the IEEE, IEICE, in Japan, SBrT, SBMO, SBPC, ABJC and SBEB, in Brazil. He studied acoustic guitar at the Federal University of Paraiba, and keyboard and bass at the music school Musidom. He is composer and percussionist of the famous carnival club Bola de Ferro, in Recife, Brazil.