For more than 25 years, Kees Schouhammer Immink played a central role in research and development of mass data storage products. He was affiliated with Philips Research Labs, Eindoven, Netherlands from 1967 to 1998. His research resulted in 50 U.S.-issued patents, five of those basic patents have played a key role in the optical recorder industry since 1985 and will continue until at least 2015. Currently, Immink is an adjunct professor at the Institute for Experimental Mathematics in Essen, Germany, and a visiting professor at the University of Singapore. Immink joined the Philips’ research group in 1971 and participated in the world’s first experiments with optical videodisc recording. In 1979, as a technical leader, Immink participated in the negotiations between Sony and Philips for the worldwide-accepted standard for the compact disc (CD). Immink’s coding system, named EFM, now is used in most systems for digital video, audio and data recording. More recently, Immink designed the channel coding techniques for the digital versatile disc (DVD) as well as the videodisc recorder (VDR), which intends to bring an alternative to the camcorder.