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Waltraud M. Kriven received a PhD in 1976 in Solid State Chemistry from the University of Adelaide in South Australia. The B.Sc. (Hons) and Baccalaureate degrees were in Physical and Inorganic Chemistry and Biochemistry, also in Adelaide. Dr. Kriven spent one year as a Post Doctoral Teaching and Research Fellow in the Chemistry Dept. at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. She then spent three years (1977-1980) jointly at the University of California at Berkeley, and at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. There, Dr. Kriven conducted post-doctoral research in transmission electron microscopy of ceramics and was a Lecturer, teaching Phase Equilibria in the senior undergraduate Ceramics Program of the Dept. of Materials Science and Mineral Engineering. For almost four years (1980-1983) Dr. Kriven was a Visiting Scientist at the Max-Planck-Institute in Stuttgart, Germany. There she studied the mechanism of transformation toughening of composite ceramics by 1 MeV HVEM, while working in the electron microscopy group headed by Dr. M. Rühle. Since 1984, Professor Kriven has been at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for the past 24 years. She is a Full Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Affiliate Professor of the Department of Bioengineering.

Professor Kriven has internationally recognized expertise in the areas of phase transformations in inorganic compounds and their applications in structural ceramic composites. In addition she has made extensive contributions to oxide composites design, microstructure characterization by electron microscopy techniques and phase equilibria. The Kriven group has developed a new technique for in situ, hot stage (up to 2000°C) synchrotron studies of ceramics in air, including an image plate detector capable of taking a high resolution, diffractometry spectrum within 30 sec. She has written or co-authored more than 260 research publications, as well as given or co-authored more than 300 conference presentations. Prof. Kriven has edited or co-edited 15 books to date. She has given ~110 invited lectures (including 20 keynote lectures at international meetings) both nationally and internationally.

Professor Kriven has been elected an Academician to the World Academy of Ceramics (2005), Fellow of the American Ceramic Society (1995) and has won the Brunauer Award twice (in 1988 and 1991) from the American Ceramic Society for co-authoring the best research papers of the year. Four US patents have been granted. Professor Kriven was Chair of the Engineering Ceramics Division (ECD) of the American Ceramic Society, and Program Chair of the 29th International Cocoa Beach Conference of Advanced Ceramics and Composites, held in January 2005 at Cocoa Beach, Florida. She is currently a counselor to the ECD.