Vitaly Yuryevich Topolov was born in Rostov-on-Don, Russia (former USSR) on November 8th, 1961. He received the qualification “Physicist. Educator” (honours degree) in 1984 along with the degrees “Candidate of Sciences (Physics and Mathematics)” and “Doctor of Sciences (Physics and Mathematics)” in 1987 and 2000, respectively, all from the Rostov State University, Russia. He received the Professor Certificate from the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia in 2011. He has been Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Natural Science (Moscow, Russia, 2010). From 1987 to 1991, Dr. V. Yu. Topolov worked as a Research Scientist of the Institute of Physics at the Rostov State University. From 1991 to 2000, he worked as a Senior Lecturer (1991–1992) and an Associate Professor (1992–2000) of the Department of Physics at the Rostov State University. Since 2000, he has been Professor of the same Department. Since December 2006, after reforming the Rostov State University, he is a Professor of the Department of Physics at the Southern Federal University (Rostov-on-Don, Russia), and since February 2011, after reforming the departments, he is a Professor of the Department of Physics and High Technologies at the Southern Federal University. Dr. V. Yu. Topolov was also a visiting scientist at the Moscow State University, Russia (former USSR, 1989), University of Saarland, Germany (1994–1995), Aachen University of Technology – RWTH Aachen, Germany (1998), Karlsruhe Research Center, Germany (2002 and 2003–2004), University of Bath, UK (2006 and 2007), and University of Roma “Tor Vergata”, Italy (2008). His research interests include heterogeneous ferroelectrics, smart materials, domain and heterophase structures, as well as electromechanical effects in ferroelectrics and related materials. He earned the special award from the International Science Foundation (1993) and the Soros Associate Professor title and awardsfrom the International Soros Science-Educational Program and the Open Society Institute (1997, 1998, 2000, and 2001). He presented the best poster at the International Symposium on Ferroelectric Domains (China, 2000), the best oral report at the International Conference on Relaxation Phenomena in Solids (Russia, 2010), the best training aids in the Department of Physics, Southern Federal University (Russia, 2006), and the best research works in the Department of High Technologies, Southern Federal University (Russia, 2008 and 2011). The author of two monographs published at Springer (London, UK, 2009, and Berlin, Heidelberg, Germany, 2012), four chapters in monographs published at Nova Science Publishers (New York, USA, 2010, 2011 and 2012), and about 340 scientific papers, reviews, conference proceedings, and abstracts. Dr. V.Yu. Topolov has been included in the list of Active Russian Scientists four times: his papers have been cited over 100 times in periodicals from 2000 to 2006, from 2001 to 2007, from 2002 to 2008, and from 2003 to 2009. Honorary co-worker of Higher Professional Education of the Russian Federation (Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia, 2009). Member of the International Biographical Centre Top 100 Educators (Cambridge, UK, 2010). Biographical data by Dr. V.Yu. Topolov have been published in “Dictionary of International Biography” (IBC, Cambridge, UK), “2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Century” (IBC, Cambridge, UK) and “Who’s Who in the World” (Marquis, New Providence, USA). Paolo Bisegna was born on June 13th, 1968. He received the M.Sc. degree in engineering from the University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy, in 1991, and the M.Sc. degree in mathematics from the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy, in 1994, where he received the M.D. degree from the School of Medicine in 2006. He is a Professor of Mechanics in the Department of CivilEngineering, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. He has been a visiting scholar at the Department of Mathematics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA. His research interests include piezoelectric composites, smart materials, ferroelectric ceramics and composites for modern sensors and actuators. He has published approximately 100 scientific papers and conference proceedings, including a chapter in a monograph published at Nova Science Publishers (New York, USA, 2011).Christopher Rhys Bowen was born on January 18th, 1968 and grew up in Beddau, South Wales (UK). He earned a BSc (First Class) in Materials Science at the School of Materials, University of Bath, UK in 1990 and worked on his DPhil thesis in ceramics under the supervision of Prof. Brian Derby in the Department of Materials, University of Oxford, UK in 1990–1993 (PhD awarded in 1994). In 1993–1994, he worked as a Researcher in the Advanced Ceramics Group at the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg (TUHH), Germany under the supervision of Prof. Nils Claussen. From 1994 to 1996, he was research fellow at the School of Materials, University of Leeds, UK. From 1996 to 1998, he was a Senior Scientist at DERA, Functional Materials Group, UK. He joined the University of Bath in August 1998 and is now a Professor at the same University. The research interests of Prof. C. R. Bowen are concerned with functional ceramics, including ferroelectric ceramics and composites for modern sensors andactuators, as well as with manufacturing and characterisation of these materials. He earned the Thornton and Hazelwood prizes for academic work (1986–1990), Institute of Materials National Lecture Competition award (1993), SET award (2002), and John Willis award for excellence in research and teaching (2003). Prof. C. R. Bowen is the author of the monograph published at Springer (London, UK, 2009) and two chapters in monographs published at Nova Science Publishers (New York, USA, 2008 and 2010).Prof. C. R. Bowen has also published approximately 150 scientific papers, conference proceedings, and abstracts.
