Book excerpt: This Festschrift is intended as a homage to our esteemed colleague, friend and maestro Giorgio Picci on the occasion of his sixty-?fth birthday. We have knownGiorgiosince our undergraduatestudies at the University of Padova, wherewe?rst experiencedhisfascinatingteachingin theclass ofSystem Identi?cation. While progressing through the PhD program, then continuing to collaborate with him and eventually becoming colleagues, we have had many opportunitiesto appreciate the value of Giorgio as a professor and a scientist, and chie?y as a person. We learned a lot from him and we feel indebted for his scienti?c guidance, his constant support, encouragement and enthusiasm. For these reasons we are proud to dedicate this book to Giorgio. The articles in the volume will be presented by prominent researchers at the "--Ternational Conference on Modeling, Estimation and Control: A Symposium in Honor of Giorgio Picci on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday", to be held in Venice on October 4-5, 2007. The material covers a broad range of topics in mathematical systems theory, esti- tion, identi?cation and control, re?ecting the wide network of scienti?c relationships established during the last thirty years between the authors and Giorgio. Critical d- cussion of fundamental concepts, close collaboration on speci?c topics, joint research programs in this group of talented people have nourished the development of the?eld, where Giorgio has contributed to establishing several cornerstones.