Ceramic Engineering and Science Proceedings Volume 34, Issue 2 - Mechanical Properties and Performance of Engineering Ceramics and Composites VIII A collection of 21 papers from The American Ceramic Society's 37th International Conference on Advanced Ceramics and Composites, held in Daytona Beach, Florida, January 27-February 1, 2013. This issue includes papers presented in Symposium 1 -Mechanical Behavior and Performance of Ceramics and Composites.