Homayoon Estekanchi is a professor of civil engineering at Sharif University of Technology. He received his PhD in civil engineering from SUT in 1997 and has been a faculty member at SUT since then. He is a member of Iranian Construction Engineers Organization, ASCE, Iranian Inventors Association and several other professional associations. His research interests include a broad area of topics in structural and earthquake engineering with a special focus on the development of the endurance time method and the value based seismic design. Hassan Vafai has held position of professorship in civil engineering at different Universities including: Sharif University of Technology, Washington State University and University of Arizona. He was founder and editor-in-chief of Scientia, a peer-reviewed international journal of science and technology. Through out his professional career, he has received numerous awards and distinctions including: emeritus distinguished engineer by the National Academy of Sciences, Iran; an honorary doctorate by the Senatus Academicus of Moscow Region State Institution of Higher Education and the """"Order of Palm Academiques"""", awarded by the Ministry of Education, Research and Technology of France.