A critical, up to date, tutorial review and discussion of the science and technology of nanostructured metallic and ceramic materials. The focus is on the synthesis and processing of nanoparticles, the assembly and stability of nanostructures, characterization and properties, and applications. There is a growing interest in the processing of nanoparticles into consolidated bulk materials and coatings. The metastability of nanoparticles may lead to undesirable grain growth during thermally assisted consolidation or other processing routes, and the retention of nanostructures in a processed part or component continues to attract a great deal of attention. Current activity is concentrating on the deposition of nanostructured coatings using established thermal spray technology and wet chemistry methods. Naturally existing or artificially synthesized templates with unique structures and morphologies have been used to fabricate nanostructured materials with the same structural and morphological characteristics as the templates. Recent advances in characterization techniques have provided information on the structure, the surface and bulk chemistry of nanoparticles, and the structures and chemistry of exposed and buried surfaces of coatings. Contributors are drawn from Canada, France, UK, USA, Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.