Strategic Materials and Computational Design

Contributions from three Focused Sessions that were part of the34th International Conference on Advanced Ceramics and Composites(ICACC), in Daytona Beach, FL, January 24-29, 2010 are presented inthis volume. The broad range of topics is captured by the FocusedSession titles, which are listed as follows: FS1 - Geopolymers andother Inorganic Polymers; FS3 - Computational Design, ModelingSimulation and Characterization of Ceramics and Composites; and FS4- Nanolaminated Ternary Carbides and Nitrides (MAX Phases).The session on Geopolymers and other InorganicPolymers continues to attract growing attention frominternational researchers (USA, Australia, France, Germany, Italy,Czech Republic, and Viet Nam) and it is encouraging to see thevariety of established and new applications being found for thesenovel and potentially useful materials. The session organizergratefully acknowledges the support of the US Air Force Office ofScientific Research (AFOSR) through Dr. Joan Fuller. The AFOSR hascontinuously supported these conferences since the first meeting inNashville, TN in 2003.Focused Session 3 was dedicated to design, modeling, simulationand characterization of ceramics and composites. 27 technicalpapers were presented on prediction of crystal structure and phasestability, characterization of interfaces and grain boundaries atatomic scale, optimization of electrical, optical and mechanicalproperties, modeling of defects and related properties, design ofmaterials and components at different length scales, application ofnovel computational methods for processing. Four of these papersare included in this issue of CESP.Focused Session 4 was dedicated to MAX phases - a class ofternary carbides and nitrides with nanolaminated structure andgeneral formula Mn+1AXn (where M is an early transition metal, A isan A-group element from IIIA to VIA, X is either C or N, and n=1,2, 3 ...). The MAX phases have attracted recently a lot ofattention because they possess unique combination of metallic- andceramic-like properties. In all, 30 technical papers were presentedduring this session. Four of these papers are included in thisissue.