Vistasp M. Karbhari is a Professor in the Departments of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, & Civil Engineering, at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he served as the 8th president from 2013 to 2020. An internationally reputed researcher, Dr. Karbhari is an expert in the processing and mechanics of composites, durability of materials, infrastructure rehabilitation, and multi-threat mitigation and has authored/coauthored over 460 papers in journals and conference publications and is the editor/co-editor of 6 books. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); the National Academy of Inventors (NAI); the American Society of Civil Engineers; ASM International; the International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM); the International Institute for Fiber-reinforced Polymers in Construction; the International Society for Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructure; ASCE’s Structural Engineering Institute, and is an elected member of the European Academy of Science and Arts. He was named a fellow of Complete College America for his work on student success focused on access and attainment.

Professor Raman Singh’s primary research interests are in the relationship of Nano-/microstructure and Environment-assisted degradation and fracture of metallic and composite materials, and Nanotechnology for Advanced Mitigation of such Degradations. He has also worked extensively on use of advanced materials (e.g., graphene) for corrosion mitigation, stress corrosion cracking, and corrosion and corrosion-mitigation of magnesium alloys (including for the use of magnesium alloys for aerospace, defence and bioimplant applications). Prof Singh is a senior professor at Monash University, Australia. He is a Guest Professor at ETH Zurich, Switzerland (2020, 2023, 2024), US Naval Research Lab, Indian Institute of Science, and University of Connecticut. He worked as a scientist at Indian Atomic Energy and as a post-doc fellow at University of New South Wales, Australia. Prof Singh’s professional distinctions and recognitions include: Guest Professor of ETH Zurich, Editor of a book on Cracking of Welds (CRC Press), Lead Editor of a book on Non-destructive Evaluation of Corrosion (Wiley), Editor-in-Chief of an Elsevier and two MDPI journals, leader/chairperson of a few international conferences and numerous plenary/keynote lectures at international conferences, over 270 peer-reviewed international journal publications and 15 book chapter, and several competitive research grants (that includes 4 Discovery, 7 Linkage and one ITRH grants of Australian Research Council). Prof Singh has supervised 58 PhD students. His vibrant research group at Monash University comprises of PhD students from different disciplines (Mechanical, Chemical, Materials and Mining Engineering, and Science) as well as from different cultural backgrounds (Australian, Middle-eastern, Chinese, Malaysian, Indian, African, North American and Israeli).