Raj Vaidyanathan joined UCF in 2001 in the Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering Department and is currently a Professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department. He is a recipient of several teaching and research awards including a National Science Foundation CAREER award, UCF’s Research Incentive Award, UCF’s Teaching Incentive Award and a TMS/Japan Institute of Metals (JIM) Young Leader International Scholar Award. At UCF, he has established a world-class program in the research and development of shape memory alloys. The program has had a tremendous impact and has placed UCF’s doctoral students in prominent careers in shape memory alloys (e.g., at NASA, Boeing, Saes Getters, etc). The characterization tools employed include in situ neutron diffraction at stress and temperature at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Oak National Laboratory. His research has been supported by NSF, ONR, NASA GRC, NASA KSC, DoD, DoE, Siemens Power, Medtronic, ASRC, Qinetiq, State of Florida, among others and has led to several publications, presentations, and patents. His former students have been successfully employed at NASA, Intel, SAES Getters, Caterpillar, Siemens, Boeing, Medtronic, Harris Corporation, etc.