Harry Bernas is Research Director at the French National Research Center (CNRS). He has held various positions related to interdisciplinary research in CNRS, and was founding coordinator of the European COST program on Plasma- and Ion- Surface Engineering. He has authored over 200 papers in international journals and holds several patents. His main research interests are the study and control of materials nonequilibrium properties in metallic and oxide glasses, metal hydrides, semiconductors and metals under irradiation. In recent years, he has concentrated on the control via ion irradiation of magnetic properties in metallic nanostructures, and on the beam-controlled synthesis and optical properties of semiconductor and metal nanoclusters in glasses. He can be reached at [email protected].