Dr. Cardenas was born in Aguascalientes, Mexico, and obtained the B.S degree from San Diego State University and the M.S and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science, at the University of California, Los Angeles, 1969. He was a visiting scientist/consultant to IBM Corporation in 1972-1975. He has been a consultant to many organizations in several countries. He is author and co-editor of several books, and of many other publications. His major areas of interest include database management, distributed heterogeneous and multimedia (text, image/picture, voice) systems, information systems planning and development methodologies, software engineering, and legal and intellectual property issues. He has been a consultant to both users and vendors of hardware and software technology.