Edgar Lara-Curzio is a Distinguished Research Staff Member and the leader of the Mechanical Properties and Mechanics Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Since 1999 he has been serving as leader of the Mechanical Characterization and Analysis User Center in ORNL's High Temperature Materials Laboratory. Lara-Curzio received a B.Sc. degree in Engineering Physics from the Metropolitan University in Mexico City in 1986 and a Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY, in 1992. His research work has been focused on studying the mechanical behavior, durability and reliability of structural and functional materials, on understanding the relationships among their processing, microstructure and properties, studying the effect of service environment on their properties and on developing models to describe their behavior and to predict their service life. Dr. Lara-Curzio has been serving as chairman of ASTM sub-committee C28.07 on Ceramic Matrix Composites since 1999. Since 1995 he has been serving as co-chair of the Coordination Group on Test Methods for Ceramic Matrix Composites for the Military Handbook-17 and since 1998 as leader of Working Groups WG20 and WG21 of Technical Committee 206 on Advanced Ceramics of the International Standards Organization. Dr. Lara-Curzio is currently serving as associate editor of the Journal of the American Ceramic Society and as member of the International Materials Review Committee of ASM International. He is also the current chair-elect of the American Ceramics Society's Engineering Ceramics Division. Dr. Lara-Curzio is a fellow of ASTM. He was the recipient of ASTM's Award of Merit in 2001 and ASTM's Advanced Ceramics Award in 2002. He has also received four ASTM Awards of Appreciation for authoring and leading the development of ASTM standard test methods. In 2003 he received the American Ceramic Society's Richard M. Fulrath Award for significant contributions to ceramic science and technology and served as Program Chair for the 30th International Conference for Advanced Ceramics and Materials held in Cocoa Beach, Florida, January 22-27, 2006. Dr. Lara-Curzio is a member of Alpha Sigma Mu, the Metallurgical Honorary Society. Dongming Zhu is a senior Materials Research Engineer at Army Research Laboratory, Vehicle Technology Directorate, and Durability and Protective Coatings Branch of Structures and Materials Division, at NASA Glenn Research Center. His expertise covers the areas of thermal conductivity, lattice defects and transport, high temperature oxidation, high-heat-flux testing, and mechanical behavior of ceramic coating systems, with an emphasis on experimental investigation and analytical modeling of processing, thermal fatigue and fracture behavior of advanced protective coatings and composites. His major contributions include the development of low conductivity thermal barrier coatings for turbine airfoil applications, 1650°C thermal/environmental barrier coatings for SiC/SiC ceramic matrix composite turbine vane and combustor liner applications. He has authored more than 100 archival publications and three patents. He is a member of the American Ceramic Society and ASM, International, has been a lead organizer for several International Symposia. He is currently the Chair-elect of the Engineering Ceramic Division of the American Ceramic Society, and an associate editor of the International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology. He has received several awards from NASA and professional societies. He received his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science from the University of Minnesota in 1996.