Ugo Fano, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago, whose pioneering contributions to the theory of atomic and radiation physics proved instrumental in the development of gas lasers and use of radiation in medical diagnosis and therapy, died in Chicago on 13 February. Fano, who began his career working with Enrico Fermi at the University of Rome in the 1930s, received the Enrico Fermi Award from President Bill Clinton in a White House ceremony in 1996. His influence in physics is reflected in the number of discoveries that now bear his name, including the "Fano effect" and the "Fano factor." He visited ICTP on two occasions, in 1988 and in 1990, to attend the Research Workshop in Condensed Matter, Atomic and Molecular Physics.