Ricardo Castro is a Professor in the Department of Materials Sciences and Engineering at University of California, Davis. He joined UC Davis in 2009 and is the lead of the Nanoceramics Thermochemistry Laboratory, a lab dedicated to provide fundamental understanding, using experimental thermodynamics, of ceramic nanomaterials and their mechanical responses and behavior under processing conditions and operation at extreme environments, such as high temperatures and radiation.

Castro has a PhD in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, and a Bachelor in Molecular Sciences from the same University. He has published over 100 scientific articles, and is an active member of The American Ceramic Society. He was the president for two consecutive years of the National Institute of Ceramic Engineering before promoting its incorporation in the education division, and is affiliated with the Basic Science Division. He is the 2014 recipient of the ACerS Robert L. Coble Award for young scholars and has served on the ACerS Books Sub-Committee from 2014-2017.

Prof. Castro is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the ACerS International Journal of Ceramic Engineering and Science (IJCES), a new online, open access, interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal designed to meet the publishing needs of the global ceramic and glass science and engineering communities. Castro is a regular instruction for ACerS Sintering of Ceramics short course. He is also a member of the Materials Research Society, the creator of the Materials Magic Show at UC Davis, Principal Editor of the Journal of Materials Research, and Editor of Scientific Reports.

Castro has a passion and a dedication to bringing scholars together from across the Americas. He is currently Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies at UC Davis, giving him the opportunity to address broader topics related research and development in ceramics and beyond.