Richard W. Hertzberg received his B.S. cum laude in Mechanical Engineering from the City College New York, his M.S. in Metallurgy from M.I.T. and his Ph.D. in Metallurgical Engineering from Lehigh University. A recipient of two Alcoa Foundation Awards of Outstanding Research Achievement, co-recipient of Lehigh University's Award of Outstanding Research, recipient of Lehigh University's College of Engineering Teaching Excellence Award, and co-recipient of Lehigh University's award in Recognition of outstanding contributions to the University, Dr. Hertzberg has served as Research Scientist for the United Aircraft Corporation Research Labs, and Visiting Professor at the Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland. As an active member of several engineering societies, he has been elected as a Fellow of the American Society for Metals and was recipient of the TMS 2000 Educator Award as the most outstanding educator in the nation. He has authored approximately 230 scholarly articles, co-authored Fatigue of Engineering Plastics (Academic Press, 1980), and co-authored the fifth edition of Deformation and Fracture Mechanics of Engineering Materials. Dr. Hertzberg has also been an invited lecturer in the United States, Asia, Israel, and Europe, and has served as a consultant to government and industry. He was previously Chair, Materials Science and Engineering Dept. and Director of the Mechanical Behavior Laboratory of the Materials Research Center at Lehigh University. Currently, he is New Jersey Zinc Professor Emeritus of Materials Science and Engineering.