Zdenìk P. Bažant has held the WP Murphy Chair of Civil Engineering and Materials Science at Northwestern University, USA, since 1990 and has been McCormick School Professor since 2002. He also served as Director of the Center for Concrete and Geomaterials from 1981 to 1987. He has been inducted to both the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and of Engineering and has received five honorary doctorates.

• Introduction; Asymptotic Analysis of Size Effect; Randomness and Disorder; Energetic Scaling for Sea Ice and Concrete Structures; Energetic Scaling of Compression Fracture and Further Applications to Concrete, Rocks and Composites; Scaling via J-Integral, with Application to Kink Bands in Fiber Composites; Time Dependence, Repeated Loads and Energy Absorption Capacity; Computational Approaches to Quasibrittle Fracture and its Scaling; New Asymptotic Scaling Analysis of Cohesive Crack Model and Smeared-Tip Method; Size Effect at Continuum Limit on Approach to Atomic Lattice Scale; Future Perspectives; Appendices

Review of first edition:"Consolidates most of Bazant’s pioneering research work in energetic strength scaling in an accessible format... a fascinating read and I highly recommend it to any practitioners of this subject." --Strain