**About the Editors**

**Roberto Citarella** obtained his Doctor degree and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 1994 and in 1999, respectively, both at University of Naples, IT. In 1996, he received his diploma for a Master's in Business Administration (MBA) at the school "Stoa" in Naples. From 2005 to 2015, he ` was an assistant professor for teaching the discipline of Machine Design at University of Salerno. Since March 2015, he has been an associate professor of Machine Design at the Department of Industrial Engineering (DIIN) at the University of Salerno. He was visiting researcher at the Wessex Institute of Technology in 1996, Southampton (UK), and at the Queen Mary and Westfield College, London (UK), in 1998 and 2000. He was a member of: International Scientific Advisory Committee for the international conference "Fatigue Damage of Materials 2003"; the referee group for the first European call FP7 Transport–Aeronautics; and the organization committee for the international conference BeTeq 2007. He was involved as the main investigator and member in several national research activities. He collaborates also with international research centers such as the Max Planck Institute of Greiswald, Germany; and the Kazan Scientific Center Russian Academy of Sciences, Kazan, Russia, among others. He is a fellow of the Wessex Institute of Technology. His main topics of research are: boundary element method; vibrational acoustics; bioengineering; fracture mechanics; and thermomechanical fatigue. He has published nearly 110 technical papers in international peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. He serves as a reviewer for many international journals and is a member of the editorial board of the journals "*Advances in Engineering Software" and "The Open Mechanical Engineering Journal*" (for the latter, he has just been appointed regional editor).

**Paulo M. S. T. de Castro** obtained a first degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) in 1973, a Master's degree from Imperial College London in 1977, and a Ph.D. from the Cranfield Institute of Technology in 1980. He is currently a retired full professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of FEUP. His research interests are mainly in the field of fatigue, fracture and structural integrity. A substantial part of his research in recent years has been related to aeronautics, formerly riveted structures and more recently, integral structures, particularly those made with FSW. He has been involved in several scientific and professional associations, such as ASME, where he was a member of the Board on Professional Practice and Ethics, EASN, TWI, IOM3, SEFI and Ordem dos Engenheiros, among others. He is a corresponding member of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences and a member of the editorial board of the journals "*Fatigue and Fracture of Engineering Materials and Structures", "International Journal of Structural Integrity", "Mechanika", and "UPB Scientific Bulletin Series D: Mechanical Engineering*", among others. He has taken sabbaticals as a Fulbright scholar at the University of California at Berkeley, and as a visiting scholar at Lehigh University. He was a professeur invite of the Universit ´ e´ des Sciences et Technologies de Lille. He has a diversified experience as an evaluator of R&D for the European Union and several national organizations, and as a monitor for EU programs or projects, including the recent large aeronautics project LOCOMACHS. He is currently a member of the Scientific Committee of the EU program Clean Sky 2.

**Angelo Maligno**, Ph.D., is a professor of Composite Materials at the Institute for Innovation in Sustainable Engineering (IISE), University of Derby. Dr Angelo Maligno has significant experience in the R&D analysis and the design of structural components and he has been involved in several multi-disciplinary research and industrial projects aimed at investigating the response of advanced engineering materials and structures to various types of external loading and environmental conditions, using a combination of analytical, numerical and experimental techniques. He holds a Laurea Degree in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Palermo, Italy, and completed his Ph.D. in the Mechanics of Composite Materials at the University of Nottingham. Dr Maligno has worked in the industry and consultancy sectors, where he carried out R&D activities related to the aerospace, medical, defense, and nuclear engineering sectors. Dr. Maligno joined the University of Derby in 2014. In a joint Chair role at IISE, he is leading research into the design and mechanics of advanced materials at different scales using advanced computational modeling strategies. Professor Maligno leads a team of full-time researchers and he is assisted by visiting professors from the industry (AIRBUS, GKN AEROSPACE, ROLLS ROYCE Nuclear) and members of the research office at the University.
