Michael F. Modest received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Merced. His research interests include all aspects of radiative heat transfer; in particular heat transfer in combustion systems, heat transfer in hypersonic plasmas, and laser processing of materials. For several years, he taught at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Southern California, followed by 23 years as a Professor of mechanical engineering at The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Modest is a recipient of the Heat Transfer Memorial award, the Humboldt Research award, and the AIAA Thermophysics award, among many others. He is an honorary member of the ASME, and an Associate Fellow of the AIAA.