Ramesh Agarwal is currently the William Palm Professor Chair at Washington University in St. Louis. Previously, he was the Sam Bloomfield Distinguished Professor and Executive Director of the National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University, Kansas and the Program Director and McDonnell Douglas Fellow at McDonnell Douglas Research Laboratories in St. Louis. Dr. Agarwal received his PhD from Stanford University, M.S. from the University of Minnesota and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India. He is the author and coauthor of over 600 publications. He has given many plenary, keynote and invited lectures in over sixty countries. He is a Fellow of 24 professional societies American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). He has received many prestigious national/international awards including the SAE Medal of Honor, ASME Honorary Fellowship and Honorary Fellowship from Royal Aeronautical Society.