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.

Ceramic Engineering and Science Proceedings Volume 34, Issue 10 - Developments in Strategic Materials and Computational Design IV A collection of 25 papers from The American Ceramic Society's 37th International Conference on Advanced Ceramics and Composites, held in Daytona Beach, Florida, January 27-February 1, 2013. This issue includes papers presented in the Geopolymers and Chemically Bonded Ceramics (Focused Session 1); Thermal Management Materials and Technologies (Focused Sessoin 2); and Materials for Extreme Environments: Ultrahigh Temperature Ceramics and Nano-laminated Ternary Carbides and Nitrides (MAX Phases) (Symposium 12).

This issue contains 31 papers from The American Ceramic Society s 38th International Conference on Advanced Ceramics and Composites, held in Daytona Beach, Florida, January 26-31, 2014. 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 Nanolaminated Ternary Carbides and Nitrides; Focused Session 1 - Geopolymers and Chemically Bonded Ceramics; Focused Session 2 Advanced Ceramic Materials and Processing for Photonics and Energy; Focused Session 3 Rare Earth Oxides for Energy, Optical and Biomedical Applications, Focused Session 4 Ion-Transport Membranes; 3rd Global Pacific Rim Engineering Ceramics Summit; and the 3rd Annual Global Young Investigator Forum

Contributions from three Focused Sessions that were part of the 34th International Conference on Advanced Ceramics and Composites (ICACC), in Daytona Beach, FL, January 24-29, 2010 are presented in this volume. The broad range of topics is captured by the Focused Session titles, which are listed as follows: FS1 - Geopolymers and other Inorganic Polymers; FS3 - Computational Design, Modeling Simulation and Characterization of Ceramics and Composites; and FS4 - Nanolaminated Ternary Carbides and Nitrides (MAX Phases).

The session on Geopolymers and other Inorganic Polymers continues to attract growing attention from international researchers (USA, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, and Viet Nam) and it is encouraging to see the variety of established and new applications being found for these novel and potentially useful materials. The session organizer gratefully acknowledges the support of the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) through Dr. Joan Fuller. The AFOSR has continuously supported these conferences since the first meeting in Nashville, TN in 2003.

Focused Session 3 was dedicated to design, modeling, simulation and characterization of ceramics and composites. 27 technical papers were presented on prediction of crystal structure and phase stability, characterization of interfaces and grain boundaries at atomic scale, optimization of electrical, optical and mechanical properties, modeling of defects and related properties, design of materials and components at different length scales, application of novel computational methods for processing. Four of these papers are included in this issue of CESP.

Focused Session 4 was dedicated to MAX phases - a class of ternary carbides and nitrides with nanolaminated structure and general formula Mn+1AXn (where M is an early transition metal, A is an 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 of attention because they possess unique combination of metallic- and ceramic-like properties. In all, 30 technical papers were presented during this session. Four of these papers are included in this issue.

On October 28-29, 2003, the 64th Conference on Glass Problems took place on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This conference encompassed four topic sessions: Refractories chaired by Daryl E. Clendenen and Thomas Dankert; Energy and Combustion, chaired by Marilyn DeLong and Philip Ross; Process Control, chaired by Ruud Berkens and Robert Lowhorn; and Emerging Areas, chaired by Larry McCloskey and Robert Thomas.

The papers presented at the conference were reviewed by the respective session chairs, and underwent minor editing by the conference director, before further editing and production by The American Ceramic Society.