Dr Norman Jones is an Emeritus Professor of Engineering at the University of Liverpool. He was previously the A. A. Griffith Professor of Engineering, headed the University's Department of Mechanical Engineering (1982–1990) and served as Director of the Impact Research Centre (1985–2005). Prior to that, he was a Professor of Ocean Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has published more than 300 papers, principally on many aspects of the response of structures subjected to dynamic, impact and blast loadings which produce large inelastic strains. He is the honorary editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Impact Engineering and was editor (1983–87) and editor-in-chief (1988–2008) and is the author of the first edition of Structural Impact (1989, 1997). Professor Jones is honorary professor at Huazhong and Taiyuan Universities of Science and Technology in China, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (London) and a Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering.