“‘Always question authority’ perhaps best describes Prof. Rajagopal’s approach to life and research. In research, this attitude combined with his great intellectual integrity, has paid rich dividends. He has dared to tackle unsolved problems that others shy away from, found new solutions to classical problems, and developed new theories in the face of contrary opinion… Indeed, in awarding him the Distinguished Alumnus Award this year, IIT Madras honours itself.”

Citation to Professor K. R. Rajagopal on the conferment of the 1998 Distinguished Alumnus Award, IIT Madras.

The collection of articles contained in this volume is dedicated to Professor K. R. Rajagopal on the occasion of his 60th birthday. This volume contains a list of his published papers and seventeen original articles by his former students, post-doctoral researchers and collaborators. These articles cover a wide range of subtopics in mechanics from constitutive modeling, polymer rheology, biomechanics to control theory. The broad spectrum of articles published here stands true testimony to the breadth and depth of Professor Rajagopal’s seminal contributions to mechanics.

This Festschrift series consists of four issues. While the first three issues are appearing in this volume, the fourth issue will be published in March 2012. The first and the third issue contain papers mainly from fluid mechanics and viscoelasticity and the second and the fourth issue consists of publications relating to biomechanics and controls theory. Many of these articles were presented in the workshop conducted at IIT Madras during November 25–27, 2010. We are grateful to Professor Michael Hayes for providing a foreword. We take this opportunity to thank all the authors who have contributed to these issues.