Mechanics of Biological Systems and Materials, Volume 5: Proceedings of the 2012 Annual Conference on Experimental and Applied Mechanics represents one of seven volumes of technical papers presented at the Society for Experimental Mechanics SEM 12th International Congress & Exposition on Experimental and Applied Mechanics, held at Costa Mesa, California, June 11-14, 2012.  The full set of proceedings also includes volumes on Dynamic Behavior of Materials, Challenges in Mechanics of Time-Dependent Materials and Processes in Conventional and Multifunctional Materials, Imaging Methods for Novel Materials and Challenging Applications, Experimental and Applied Mechanics, MEMS and Nanotechnology and, Composite Materials and Joining Technologies for Composites.