In the last few years, a significant increase in applications of MMCs has taken place, particularly in the areas of automotive, aerospace, electronics, and recreation. These include continuous fiber reinforced MMCs for cables in power transmission, high temperature superconducting wires, particulate MMCs in civilian aircraft and automotive applications, and high volume fraction, high thermal conductivity substrates for electronic packaging. Nevertheless, as with any novel material systems, there is a lack of fundamental understanding on the part of practicing engineers and designers. This book would seek to address these issues, in a thorough and cohesive manner, as well as to provide students and scientists with a basic understanding of MMCs. This book will emphasize the synergistic relationships among processing, structure, and properties of metal matrix composites.

Nikhilesh Chawla is Associate Professor of Materials Engineering at Arizona State University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Prior to ASU, he was a postdoctoral fellow jointly at Ford Motor Company and the University of Michigan, and a senior development engineer at Hoeganaes Corporation. His research interests encompass the mechanical behavior and modeling of advanced materials at bulk and small length scales. Professor Chawla is the recipient of the National Science Foundation Early Career Development Award and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award. He's also the recipient of the 2004 Bradley Stoughton Award for Young Teachers, given by ASM International. During 2004-05, he was Chair of the Composite Materials Committee of The Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society, and serves on the Editorial Board of Review for Metallurgical and Materials Transactions.

Krishan Chawla is Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests encompass processing, microstructure, and mechanical behavior of materials. He has taught and/or done research at several universities around the world. Professor Chawla has served as a Program Director for metals and ceramics in the Division of Materials Research, National Science Foundation. He is a fellow of ASM international, received the Distinguished Reseach Award at New Mexico Tech and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Banaras Hindu University in 2000. Professor Chawla is the author or coauthor of various textbooks in the area of materials and serves on the editorial boards of number of journals.