Xugung Wng, Jmes Short

a Beijing General Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Beijing 102600, China

b University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA

The study of broadly-defined energetic materials has been of increasing importance, from both academic and applied perspectives,and become increasingly interdisciplinary in the last decades.The special issue of the Chinese Academy of Engineering journal Engineering is dedicated to energetic materials and interdisciplinary sciences, and complements the International Forum on Frontiers of Energetic Materials (FEM2019) that took place in Chengdu,China in November 2019.An aim of both this special edition of Engineering and FEM2019 is to stimulate scientific and technological communications in the field of energetic materials.

The special issue Editors-in-Chief Xuguang Wang and James Short and the Executive Editors-in-Chief Michael Gozin and Sheng-Nian Luo, in collaboration with the editorial board members, have assembled a compilation of seven papers from those presented at FEM2019 and from other distinguished authors from China,the United Kingdom, and the United States. They have contributed original research and review articles at the frontiers of synthesis and characterization, performance and combustion,ultrahigh-pressure behavior,and experimental techniques pertaining to energetic materials.

In a 2010 book, James Short wrote‘‘When we think of energetics, inevitably we think of explosives, propellants, firecrackers,gunpowder, and then China, since it is there that gunpowder was first invented. It is therefore appropriate that any study of the science of energetics begins with an examination of the developments of energetics in China.” Reciprocally, China has actively engaged with international academics in the field of energetics,as evidenced by three International Workshops on Advanced Energetic Materials,which took place in Chengdu(2016,2017)and Beijing (2018). Back in Chengdu in 2019, the organizers sought to draw the attention of a wider international audience by coupling this special issue of Engineering with a larger fourth workshop called the International Forum on Frontiers of Energetic Materials.

With this special issue on energetic materials and interdisciplinary sciences, the editors hope to achieve the stated purpose of the journal Engineering ‘‘to encourage engineering breakthroughs and innovations that are of profound economic and social importance, enabling them to reach advanced international standards and to become a new productive force,and thereby changing the world, benefiting humanity, and creating a new future.”

The editors are indebted to many people and organizations—the diligent authors, thoughtful reviewers, meticulous organizers of FEM2019, and several hundred participants from approximately seventy Chinese organizations and tens of organizations located in seven other countries.