Dr. Narottam P. Bansal is a Senior Research Scientist in the Ceramic Branch, Materials and Structures Division, NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, OH. He received his Ph. D. in 1973. He held post-doctoral research appointments at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Troy, NY. He has carried out research in a number of areas such as: solid oxide fuel cells, fiber-reinforced ceramic matrix composites for high-temperature structural applications in turbine engines, fiber-matrix interface, thermal and environmental barrier coatings, high-temperature superonductors, sol-gel Processing, refractory glass-ceramics, crystallization kinetics, phase transformations, IR-transmitting materials, electroanalytical techniques, ionic diffusion in melts. Dr. Bansal is a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society. He is recipient of NASA''s Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievements (1998), R & D 100 Award (2001) and Hind Rattan Award (1993) from NRI Society of India. He has also received numerous Innovative Technology Development Awards and Tech Brief Awards from NASA. He has been listed in more than 30 different Who''s Who in the U.S. and abroad. So far, he has been organizer and Program Chair of 31 International Symposia and editor of 23 Conference proceeding volumes. He is author/co-author of 4 books, 6 invited book chapters, 3 review articles, 8 NASA Tech Briefs, and 215 research papers including 92 peer-reviewed journal articles. He has been awarded seven U.S. Patents, so far. Dr. Bansal has also served on the international advisory boards of a number of international conferences. He was a member of the Technical Committee 18 of International Commission on Glass and Chair of its subcommittee on Diffusion in Glass Forming Melts. He is a member of the Technical Committee V.8.1 of International Union of Pure & Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). He is an active member of the American Ceramic Society since 1982. As a member of the Engineering Ceramics Division, Dr. Bansal has served as chair of the Awards and Scholarship Committee. He is a past chair of the Northern Ohio section of the American Ceramic Society.

J. P. Singh is a senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois. Currently, he is on assignment as a Program Manager with US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)/Asian Office of Aerospace R&D (AOARD). He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from University of Utah in 1979. Prior to joining Argonne in 1983, he held positions at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, and McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada. He has worked in the area of structural ceramics and composites, high temperature superconductivity, solid oxide fuel cells, thermal and environment barrier coatings for advanced turbine systems, and refractories for coal gasifiers as well as steel and glass manufacturing. Dr. Singh has received numerous awards including the1988 R&D 100 Award for "Neutron Stress Monitor for Composites Constituents," Argonne Director''s Award (1991) for the fabrication of a first-of-a-kind high temperature superconducting current lead, 1992 Federal Laboratory Consortium Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer, and 2004 James Muller Memorial Award from the Engineering Ceramics Division of the American Ceramic Society. He was the chair (1997-1998) and counselor (1998-2000) of the Engineering Ceramic Division of the American Ceramic Society. His research interests include fracture and thermomechanical behavior of ceramics and composites. He has published more than 180 papers, edited over 20 books, holds 5 patents, and organized over 20 international conferences in the area of ceramics and composites. He is a fellow of the American Ceramics Society.

Tatsuki Ohji is a principal research scientist of National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan. He earned his BS and MS from Nagoya Institute of Technology in mechanical engineering and Ph. D. from Tokyo Institute of Technology in inorganic materials engineering. He was a visiting scientist at University of California, Berkeley during 1991-92. His research interests include mechanical and other characteristics of ceramics, ceramic composites and porous materials. Fellow of the American Ceramic Society and recipient of the Academy Award of the Ceramic Society of Japan, he has authored or coauthored more than 250 papers. He is serving as associate editors of Journal of the American Ceramic Society and International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology. He is recognized as the most highly cited author who has published papers in Journal of the American Ceramic Society from 1999 to 2004.