About the Authors Samuel M. Allen is Professor of Physical Metallurgy in the Department of Materials Science
and Engineering at M.I.T. He earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Stevens Institute of Technology and an
S.M. and a Ph.D. from M.I.T. His research interests include phase transformations, solid/solid interfaces, structure/property
relations in high-temperature alloys, three-dimensional printing of metal tools for plastic injection molding,
and alloys for high-strain actuators. He is also co-authoring a graduate textbook, "Kinetic Processes in Materials,"
with Robert W. Balluffi and W. Craig Carter.
Thomas, Edwin L. : M.I.T.
Edwin L. Thomas is the Morris Cohen Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at M.I.T. He received a B.S.
in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts and a Ph.D. in Materials Science from Cornell University.
His research interests include processing, microstructure and mechanical property relations of polymers, and optical
properties of liquid crystals and polymeric-based photonic band gap materials. Professor Thomas' honors and awards
include the High Polymer Physics Prize of the American Physical Society and the American Chemical Society Creative
Polymer Chemist Award.
Summary
With the tremendous array of experimental tools available today to scientists and engineers for studying the
structure of materials, structural arrangements for crystalline and noncrystalline materials, and liquid crystals
can be described with great accuracy. This book specializes in the structure of materials, and focuses solely on
the three different states of solid condensed matter--glasses, crystals, and liquid crystals--and develop a set
of tools for describing all of them. Treatment includes glasses, crystals, liquid crystals, imperfections in ordered
media, and microstructure. This book uses a more concise and consistent approach with the way materials scientists
and engineers need to think about materials in order to select them and use them to their best advantage.
