Sam Zhang holds a Ph.D in ceramics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, and is a tenured full professor in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Professor Zhang was conferred the title of Honorary Professor of the Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Anhui. He also holds guest professorships at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China and Harbin Institute of Technology, China. Professor Zhang is the founding editor-in-chief of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Letters and principal editor of Journal of Materials Research. He has authored/coauthored 11 books, more than 20 book chapters, and 290+ peer-reviewed international journal articles. In addition, he has guest-edited more than 10 journal volumes. As of April 30, 2015, Professor Zhang’s articles have been cited more than 4952 times and his h-index is 39. A popular invited lecturer, he is the founder and chair of the biennial International Conference on Technological Advances of Thin Films & Surface Coatings conference series, the founding president of the Thin Films Society, and was a fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, UK. He was featured in the first ever Who’s Who in Engineering Singapore, and in the 26th and 27th editions of Who’s Who in the World.
"""As the first of its kind, this book is a valuable reference for toughness and toughening of hard coatings. I strongly recommend this book to research students and industrial R&D engineers interested in understanding and developing hard-yet-tough coatings. It is also a good source of information for materials science students to find ample examples of how fundamental understandings are applied to develop better materials."" —Zhong Chen, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore ""… an original, timely, and critical handbook for researchers and industry to refer to, and for newcomers to learn from. The contents of the book are contributed by experts in this field from all over the world."" —Richard Fu, Reader, Department of Physics and Electrical Engineering, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK"