Dr. Xuan Song is an Associate Professor and James A. Chisman Faculty Fellow in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Iowa (UIowa). His group specializes in the design, manufacturing, and diagnostics of extreme materials that operate under high-temperature and high-strain-rate conditions. Their current interest centers on studying how gentle and versatile material forming mechanisms found in nature can be leveraged to advance next-generation manufacturing processes for ceramics and energetic materials with enhanced sustainability and multi-scale tunability. They also utilize multi-scale in-situ experimental tools, including high strain-rate dynamic testing, high-speed optical imaging, and high-speed thermometry, to probe the process and material dynamics under extreme conditions. Dr. Song is a recipient of the US National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Young Investigator Award, and SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award. He received his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Wuhan University, master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Zhejiang University, and PhD degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Southern California.