Alexander A. Balandin is a Distinguished Professor and Vice Chair for Graduate Education at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) of the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is a Director of the Phonon Optimized Engineered Materials (POEM) Laboratory at the MSE department and the Brillouin – Mandelstam Spectroscopy Facility at The California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI). Before joining UCLA, he was a Distinguished Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) where he served as the Founding Chair of the Materials Science and Engineering Program and as a Director of the UCR Nanofabrication Facility. Professor Balandin’s expertise covers a wide range of areas – from material science and solid-state physics to nanotechnology and electronics. He is internationally recognized as a pioneer of the graphene thermal field who experimentally discovered unique heat conduction properties of graphene, explained them theoretically, and introduced the first graphene-based thermal management technologies such as the graphene thermal interface materials, graphene thermal phase change materials, and graphene heat spreaders. His other research achievements include the investigation of the acoustic phonon confinement effects, the development of phonon engineering approaches for nanoscale devices, the study of low-frequency electronic noise in advanced materials and devices, and the demonstration of room-temperature charge-density-wave quantum devices. Professor Balandin is a recipient of The MRS Medal from the Materials Research Society, The Brillouin Medal from the International Phononics Society, and The Pioneer of Nanotechnology Award from the IEEE Society for his graphene, phononics, and nanotechnology research. He is an elected Fellow of eight professional societies: MRS, APS, IEEE, OSA, SPIE, IOP, IOM3, AAAS, and the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellow (VBFF) – the most prestigious single-investigator award recognition from the U.S. Department of Defense. Professor Balandin is among the Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers in two categories. He serves as a Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Applied Physics Letters (APL). He supervised the dissertation research of more than 40 Ph.D. students who now enjoy successful careers at leading semiconductor industry companies, academia, and U.S. government laboratories.