A collection of 17 papers from thee popular symposia - Symposium 4: Armor Ceramics; Symposium 5: Next Generation Bioceramics and Biocomposites; and Symposium 9: Porous Ceramics: Novel Developments and Applications held during The American Ceramic Society’s 40th International Conference on Advanced Ceramics and Composites, held in Daytona Beach, Florida, January 24-29, 2016.