Barna Szabo is co-founder and president of EngineeringSoftware Research and Development, Inc. (ESRD), the company thatproduces the professional finite element analysis softwareStressCheck(R). Prior to his retirement from the School ofEngineering and Applied Science of Washington University in 2006 heserved as the Albert P. and Blanche Y. Greensfelder Professor ofMechanics. His primary research interest is assurance of qualityand reliability in the numerical stimulation of structural andmechanical systems by the finite element method. He has publishedover 150 papers in refereed technical journals. Several of them incollaboration with Professor Ivo Babu ka, with whom he alsopublished a book on finite element analysis (John Wiley & Sons,Inc., 1991). He is a founding member and Fellow of the USAssociation for Computational Mechanics. Among his honors areelection to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences as External Memberand an honorary doctorate. Ivo Babu ka s research has been concernedmainly with the reliability of computational analysis ofmathematical problems and their applications, especially by thefinite element method. He was the first to address a posteriorierror estimation and adaptivity in finite element analysis. Hisresearch papers on these subjects published in the 1970s have beenwidely cited. His joint work with Barna Szabo on the p-versionof the finite element method established the theoreticalfoundations and the algorithmic structure for this method. Hisrecent work has been concerned with the mathematical formulationand treatment of uncertainties which are present in everymathematical model. In recognition of his numerous importantcontributions, Professor Babu ka received may honors, whichinclude honorary doctorates, medals and prizes and election toprestigious academies.