The 38 th annual Review of Progress in Quantitative NDE was held at the University of Vermont in Burlington, VT, on July 17-22, 2011. This conference, widely regarded as the most prestigious of NDE research conferences, emphasizes the interface between current research results in the development of new measurement techniques (theory with experimental confirmation) and early engineering applications used to enhance the safety in high technology systems. With an attendance of 350 persons - approximately one half coming from overseas and the other half from U.S. academia, industry, and government - over 320 technical papers were presented in both verbal and poster sessions. As is customary for this meeting, papers in essentially all NDE technologies were presented, ranging from fundamental theoretical analyses to practical applications. Attendees included members of the World Federation of NDE Centers, an organization dedicated to broad cooperation in and harmonization of research and education for NDE. Student papers from the 9th Annual Student Poster Competition were incorporated as a part of the Review and are included in these volumes. The Review was organized by the Center for Nondestructive Evaluation at Iowa State University and sponsored by QNDE Programs with welcome assistance from the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Ames Laboratory (DOE) at Iowa State University, the American Society of Nondestructive Testing (ASNT), the Army Research Laboratory, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry/University Cooperative Centers.