This book presents generalized heat-conduction laws which, from a mesoscopic perspective, are relevant to new applications (especially in nanoscale heat transfer, nanoscale thermoelectric phenomena, and in diffusive-to-ballistic regime) and at the same time keep up with the pace of current microscopic research. The equations presented in the book are compatible with generalized formulations of nonequilibrium thermodynamics, going beyond the local-equilibrium. The book includes six main chapters, together with a preface and a final section devoted to the future perspectives, as well as an extensive bibliography.

David Jou (born in Sitges, Catalonia, Spain in 1953) is Full Professor of Physics of Condensed Matter at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain. He has published 230 research papers on nonequilibrium thermodynamics and statistical mechanics as well as several books, including Extended Irreversible Thermodynamics (with J. Casas-Vázquez and G Lebon, Springer, now in its 4^th edition, 2014), Thermodynamics of Fluids Under Flow (with J. Casas-Vázquez and M. Criado-Sancho, Springer, 2014), and Understanding Non-equilibrium Thermodynamics (with G. Lebon and J. Casas-Vázquez, Springer, 2008).

Vito Antonio Cimmelli (born in Sarno, Italy in 1958) is a Full Professor of Mathematical Physics at the University of Basilicata, Potenza, Italy. His research interests are the mathematical methods of nonequilibrium thermodynamics, nonlocal constitutive theories, and heat conduction far from equilibrium. Professor Cimmelli is the author of around 90 research articles on these topics.

Antonio Sellitto (born in Nocera Inferiore, Italy in 1978) is a fixed-term researcher in Mathematical Physics at the University of Salerno, Italy, and an adjunct professor at the University of Basilicata, Potenza, Italy. In 2012 he was awarded an INdAM-SIMAI prize for his PhD thesis on “Nonequilibrium Temperature and Heat Transport Equations in Nanosystems”. He has published several papers on nonequilibrium thermodynamics and heat transport in nanosystems.