Jow-Lian Ding was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. He is a Professor at the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering of Washington State University (WSU). He joined WSU in 1983 after he obtained his Ph.D. degree in Solid Mechanics from Brown University. He also earned a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from National Taiwan University in 1974, and an M.S. degree in Solid Mechanics from Brown University in 1981. He served as a visiting research staff member in the Metals and Ceramics Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory at Oak Ridge, TN in 1990 and 1991, and during the summers of 1992 and 1995. He was also a visiting staff member in the Computational Physics Research and Development Department of Sandia National Laboratory at Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2000. His current research interests are in the areas of thermal and mechanical response of materials to shock and ramp wave loading, electromechanical response of piezoelectric materials, and ultrasonic transducers.