We are very excited to introduce to you this first special issue of Research in Nondestructive Evaluation (RNDE), which focuses on topics pertaining to nondestructive characterization of materials. The articles included in this issue are selected from the 14th International Symposium on Nondestructive Characterization of Materials (ISNDCM-XIV), which was held in Marina del Rey, Los Angeles, California, during the week of June 22–26, 2015. Accordingly, we do anticipate that other special issues might follow so long as the ISNDCM continues to be held.
The unique focus of the symposium is the use of nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods as an investigation tool to determine and characterize materials properties, evaluate conditions detected within them, or analyze the structural integrity of more complicated systems. In essence, ISNDCM is a juncture where materials science, physics, signal processing, and various science and engineering disciplines find a common ground. This event has attracted world-renowned experts and the scientific and engineering community to discuss the latest developments and exchange ideas covering both theoretical and experimental work.
The heritage of the symposium goes back to 1983, when Professor Robert E. Green, Jr., from Johns Hopkins University and Professor Clayton O. Ruud from Pennsylvania State University organized the first “Nondestructive Methods for Material Property Determination conference” in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Green was director of the Center for Nondestructive Evaluation (CNDE), which became the hosting body for the conference soon thereafter. Starting with the second meeting, which was held in Montreal, Canada in 1986, the conference name was modified to the International Symposium on Nondestructive Characterization of Materials™ (ISNDCM™). Green and Ruud collaborated on eight conferences until ISNDCM-VIII, which was held in Boulder, Colorado, in 1997. Green continued to be an active member of the organizing committee until ISNDCM-XI, which was held in Berlin, Germany, in 2002. Dr. B. Boro Djordjevic, a former student of Prof. Green who served as the Associated Director and later Director of the CNDE, has been organizing the conference with Green since 1995. The conference drew the largest numbers of participants during ISNDCM-VII (Prague, 1996), ISNDCM-VIII (Boulder, 1998), ISNDCM-IX (Sydney, 1999), ISNDCM-X (Karuizava, 2000), and ISNDCM-XI (Berlin, 2002). After Green’s retirement from the university and closure of the CNDE, the conference was put on hold for nine years.
In 2010, Boro Djordjevic and John C. Duke, Jr., began to organize and plan the return of the ISNDCM activity. Duke, who is the Editor-In-Chief of RNDE since 2007 and a former student of Prof. Green, is a faculty member of the Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. Professor Duke was instrumental in providing excellent resources that were available at the university to make ISNDCM-XII possible in 2011. Duke and Djordjevic chaired the conference with Green serving as an honorary chair. The NDCM-XII symposium was well received with strong international presence.
During the meeting at Virginia Tech, Djordjevic declared a new structure for the symposium, which now falls under the CNDE or CNDE.com, LLC, as its parent organization. The technical program chairmanship of the symposium was then passed to Dr. Shant Kenderian. Kenderian is with The Aerospace Corporation and one of the last graduate students of prof. Green. The community of researchers in nondestructive characterization of materials, many of whom have been associated with the symposium since its early days, expressed a strong interest in continuing the culture of ISNDCM. The Université du Maine in Le Mans, France, hosted ISNDCM-XIII in 2013. Most recently, ISNDCM-XIV was hosted by The Aerospace Corporation and held in the Los Angeles area in 2015, from where the select articles in this special issue were chosen.
Editor’s Note: The last manuscript in this issue is also on Materials Characterization but was not presented at the 14th International Symposium on Nondestructive Characterization of Materials.
John C. Duke, Jr.
Editor-in-Chief