Congratulations to Abdullah Al Saad, PhD for successfully completing his PhD! Abdullah was co-advised by Professors Rodney Trice and Carlos Martinez, and during his PhD, he worked on the development of a high emissivity coating system to protect composite materials that are designed to be used in hypersonic vehicles (funded by Office of Naval Research, US Navy). He developed a multilayer coating systems out of refractory and ultra-high temperature ceramics that can withstand a very high temperature 3800 F (2100 °C) and protect C/C composites from being oxidized and eroded in harsh oxidizing environment. He also published three peer-reviewed journal articles and submitted one provisional patent with USPTO.