Barzin Mobasher is a professor at Arizona State University in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. His research focuses on understanding the interaction of materials science, mechanics of solids, and structural analysis and design. He is interested in constitutive modeling of materials, durability of cement based materials, composites, fracture mechanics, experimental stress analysis, steel structures, and biomechanics. Jan P. Skalny studied chemical engineering at Slovak Technical University (STU) in Bratislava and at the University for Chemical Technology (VSCHT) in Prague, where he graduated in 1958. He received his PhD (chemical/ceramic engineering) at the University of Mining & Metallurgy in Krakow (1965). In 1967 he left for the United Kingdom and in 1968 he settled with his family in the United States. After a short stay at the Clarkson University in upstate New York (1968-69), he focussed his career on industrial research management. He became Associate Director of Martin Marietta Laboratories and construction materials research director for W. R. Grace & Co. After early retirement in 1991, he became a consultant and is presently President of Materials Service Life, a high-tech consulting company specializing in service life prediction of concrete-based infrastructure.