Dr. Samir V. Kamat is the Secretary of the Department of Defense Research and Development and Chairman of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). He obtained his B. Tech. ( Hons) in Metallurgical Engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur in 1985 and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from The Ohio State University, USA in 1988, specializing in the area of mechanical behavior of materials. Over the last 25 years, Dr. Kamat has made significant contributions in the area of microstructure-mechanical property correlations in advanced materials such as particulate- reinforced metal matrix composites, ceramic matrix composites, aluminum-lithium alloys, high-strength aluminum alloys, and titanium alloys which led to their development for various defense applications. He has also been instrumental in setting up state-of-the-art experimental facilities and has expertise in the characterization of the mechanical behavior of materials in small volumes, especially for materials used in MEMS.