Dr. Ashok Saxena has 38 years of experience in higher education including 25 years in senior administrative positions, and 10 years in industrial research in materials engineering. Dr. Saxena serves a Distinguished Professor (Retired) and the Dean Emeritus in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Arkansas where in the past he has also served as the Provost and Vice-Chancellor of Academic Affairs, the Dean of Engineering, the Raymond and Irma Giffels’ Chair, and the Billingsley Endowed Chair. He is also an Adjunct Regents’ Professor at Georgia Tech where he previously held the position of Regents’ Professor and Chair of the School of Materials Science and Engineering. Prior to that he was a Fellow Scientist at the Westinghouse Research and Development Center in Pittsburgh. He also served as the Vice-Chancellor of Galgotias University from 2012-2014. Dr. Saxena received his MS and PhD degrees from University of Cincinnati in 1972 and 1974, respectively in Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering and his B. Tech degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 1970 in Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Saxena’s area of expertise is mechanical behavior of materials. He has published over 300 research papers, authored/edited 11 books. He is the recipient of numerous national and international awards and recognitions in the field of fracture research that include the George Irwin Medal, the Fracture Mechanics Medal from ASTM, the Wohler Fatigue Medal from the European Structural Integrity Society, Paul Paris Gold Medal from the International Congress on Fracture and is a Fellow of ASTM, ASM International, International Congress of Fracture, and the Indian Structural Integrity Society. He was an elected member of the European Academy of Sciences.