This issue contains 27 papers from The American Ceramic Society’s 40th International Conference on Advanced Ceramics and Composites, held in Daytona Beach, Florida, January 24-29, 2016. This issue includes papers presented in the following Symposia and Focused Sessions: Symposium 2 – Advanced Ceramic Coatings for Structural, Environmental, and Functional Applications; Symposium 10 – Virtual Materials (Computational) Design and Ceramic Genome; Symposium 11 – Advanced Materials and Innovative Processing Ideas for the Industrial Root Technology; Symposium 12 – Materials for Extreme Environments: Ultrahigh Temperature Ceramics; and Emerging Technologies Symposium–Carbon Nanostructures; and Focused Session 1 - Geopolymers and Chemically Bonded Ceramics. 

Waltraud M. Kriven is Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Professor Kriven received her Ph.D. in 1976 in Solid State Chemistry from the University of Adelaide in South Australia and her B.Sc. (Honors) and Baccalaureate degrees in Physical Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, and Biochemistry from the same institute. She is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of phase transformations in inorganic compounds and their applications in structural ceramic composites. She has authored or co-authored over 240 research publications, and fourteen books to date.