Improving application performance and developing new ones requires sourcing, designing, and acquiring novel materials. The demand for ultra-high temperature ceramics (UHTCs) is increasing, especially those that are multipurpose, deformation-resistant, and offer specialized protection for engines and vehicles. These ceramics are vital for segmented leading-edge components in aerospace, plasma-facing components, and ceramic parts in solar towers and gas turbines in combined cycle power plants, along with essential infrastructure like grids and steam turbines. Consequently, there is a global need for a new class of ceramic composites with exceptional strength and a balanced mix of toughness, hardness, and modulus. Over the past decade, I have investigated the chemical and structural engineering of deformation-resistant carbides, borides, and nitrides in Me (IV-V) ceramic composites, recognized for their superior hardness, toughness, and flexural strength under extreme temperatures. Additionally, I'm researching mechanisms behind high-temperature flexural strengthening and ductility, focusing on the transition in deformation mechanisms from brittle fracture to plastic deformation in transition metal carbides, borides, and nitrides. Key studies include: (1) High-temperature flexure in bulk polycrystalline boron carbide, where at temperatures above 2000 °C, it demonstrates flexural strength over 1.8 GPa and transitions from brittle to plastic behavior, with amorphization in highly deformed grains. (2) Transforming the performance of silicon carbide by revealing a self-strengthening mechanism that improves durability under extreme temperatures. Additive-free alpha-SiC exhibits a flexural strength that increases with temperature. Under rapid loading conditions at 2000°C, it achieves a peak strength of 2.1 GPa, indicating unprecedented mechanical stability. An increase in twin density and stacking fault formation confirms a self-reinforcing process that activates under stress, ensuring the long-term integrity of the material. (3) Ultrahard Zr-Ta multiboride with an artificially created repetitive hierarchical superstructure via RD-SPS. Ta3B4 forms a chain-like mesh that entraps the ZrB2, ZrB, TaB, and (Zr, Ta)B2 solid solution multiboride ceramic, exhibiting ultra-hardness of 28 GPa at 98 N and 22 GPa at 196 N and the flexural strength of 400 MPa up to 2000 °C. (4) Study of Ta0.2Hf0.8C solid-solution ceramics that retain toughness and strength at 2000 °C, synthesized via SPS at over 2200 °C, whose stress-strain behavior remains linear at high temperatures. (5) Research into monolithic lanthanum hexaboride, an excellent thermionic emitter with low electron work function and high chemical resistance. (6) Synthesis of a high-entropy ternary carbide (Ta, Zr, Nb) with peak flexural strength at 1600 °C and multiphase high-entropy (Ti, Ta, Hf, Zr)B2 self-reinforced deformation-resistant ceramic. (7) Flash-SPS of yttria-stabilized zirconia and silicon carbide. (8) Nanoexplosion synthesis of ceramic nanopowders and nano-engineering of zirconia-noble metals composites. (9) Synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles with varying morphologies and the magnetic properties of magnetite-chitosan nanostructures. (10) Creation of tough yttria-stabilized zirconia nanoceramics through low-temperature SPS, achieving impressive toughness in tetragonal zirconia and zirconia/alumina nanoceramics.