ASHOK RAO, PhD, is a well-acknowledged national and international leader in the field of energy conversion and has made wide-ranging contributions in these fields over the past 40 years in industry as well as at the University of California’s Advanced Power and Energy Program where he is currently its Chief Scientist for Power Systems. While working at Fluor as a Director in Process Engineering, he was honoured by being made a Senior Fellow. In 2011, he was invited to be the Associate Editor for the ASME Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power and a keynote speaker at the 2011 International Conference on Applied Energy, Perugia, Italy. He also has a number of patents to his credit in the field of energy conversion as well as numerous high-quality publications.