Ugo Fano has been a leader in theoretical Physics in the XX century giving
key contributions to our understanding of quantum phenomena. He passed away on
13 February 2001 after 67 years of research activity. I will focus on his
prediction of the quantum interference effects to understand the high-energy
photoabsorption cross section giving the Fano lineshapes. The Fano results led
to the theoretical understanding of shape resonances (known also as Feshbach
resonances) that should be better called Fano resonances. Finally I will show
that today this Fano quantum interference effect is behind several new physical
phenomena in different fields.Comment: 7 pages 2 figure Submitted "X-rays and Inner Shell Processes" AIP
conference proceedings 2002
