Mark R. VanLandingham , U. S. Army ResearchLaboratory, USA Mark VanLandingham is Chief of the Materials Response and DesignBranch at the U. S. Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen ProvingGround. He is responsible for funded research projects in contactmechanics of polymer fibers, nanomechanics of compliant biologicaland bio-inspired materials and fundamental development of polymernetworks and gels and has recently spent Visiting Scientist periodsat several institutions including MIT and Drexel University. He hascontributed to numerous research papers and conferenceproceedings. Krystyn J. Van Vliet, MIT, USA Krystyn Van Vliet s laboratory group develops bothexperiments and computational simulations of nanoscale mechanicalcontact between interfaces, down to the level of atomicinteractions. Her group s early work has developed newtechnology, science, and applications based on integrated,nanoscale experiments and simulations in this emerginginterdisciplinary area. Van Vliet serves as the Director of the MITCenter for Scientific Investigation of Materials in ExtremeEnvironments and of the Nanomechanical Technology Lab. She has alsoimplemented new programs to retain underrepresented minoritystudents in advanced materials research. Y. T. Cheng, University of Kentucky, USA As Professor of Materials Engineering in the Chemical andMaterials Engineering Department at University of Kentucky,Professor Cheng participates in the NSF/UK IGERT Program onEngineered Bioactive Interfaces and Devices and theKentucky-Argonne Battery Manufacturing R&D Center. He is Fellowof the American Physical Society and has published multiplehighly-cited journal articles on a number of related topics. Hongbing Lu, University of Texas at Dallas,USA Hongbing Lu is Professor and Louis Beecherl, Jr., Chair in theDepartment of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas atDallas. Prior to this he was based at University of North Texas,Denton and Oklahoma State University. He is an editorial boardmember on International Journal of Theoretical and AppliedMultiscale Mechanics and Mechanics of Time-DependentMaterials and has written and published many book chapters.