a collection of 20 papers from the american ceramic society ` s 35th international conference on advanced ceramics and composites, held in daytona beach, florida, january 23-28, 2011. this issue includes papers presented in the 5th international symposium on advanced processing and manufacturing technologies for structural and multifunctional materials and systems on topics such as design-oriented manufacturing and novel forming and sintering. papers from a special session held in honor of katsutoshi komeya of yokohama national university, japan are also included.