Alex Demkov received the Ph.D. degree in theoretical physics from Arizona State University (ASU), Tempe, in 1995. In 1995–1997, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher with ASU. In 1997–2005, he provided theoretical support for the development of low-and high-$k$ dielectric materials as a Principal Staff Scientist in Motorola's R&D organization. He is currently a Professor of physics with the University of Texas, Austin. He has published over 80 research papers and is the holder of seven U.S. patents. His research is focused on the applications of computational electronic structure theory to materials science problems. In particular, his group made contributions to the theory of gate dielectrics and their interfaces, oxide heterostrucutres, and problems of oxide heteroepitaxy.