James E Mark is a Distinguished Research Professor for the department of Chemistry at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio. He has been a Visiting Professor at several institutions as well as having extensive research and consulting experience in industry. His current research interests pertain to the physical chemistry of polymers, including the elasticity of polymer networks, hybrid organic-inorganic composites, liquid-crystalline polymers, and a variety of computer simulations. A Fellow of the American Physical Society, he is also an editor of the journal Polymer . Amongst numerable achievements, he has been awarded the ACS Applied Polymer Science award and was also elected to the Inaugural Group of Fellows (ACS Division of Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering). Burak Erman is a Professor in the department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Koc University in Istanbul, Turkey, where he has been since 2002. His research interests are focused on rubber elasticity; polymer and protein physics and engineering, both experiment and theory, including computer simulations. In 1984, he founded and became Director of the Polymer Research Center at Bogazici University, before moving in 1988 to the Sabanci University in Istanbul where he founded the Chemistry and Materials Science Program. In 1991, he received both the Simavi Science Award and the TUBITAK Science Award. He is founder and member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences.