Dr. Cheng's research has been driven by the goal to advance the understanding of materials corrosion and stress corrosion cracking mechanisms, and to exploit the techniques in prevention and prediction of materials failure. To make significant contributions in the multidisciplinary area of corrosion research, it is essential to conduct experimental studies in direct combination with practical applications. Thus, his expertise and contributions to the research area have been in such aspects as experimental testing, mechanistic analysis, model development, and technique exploitation.