A Material World

Nearly everything you use every day of you life is a result of materials science and engineering. From the car that you drive, to the pots and pans your dinner is cooked in, to the bikes, skis, compact discs and disc players, golf clubs, clothing, and shoes you use for recreation, a materials scientist or engineer has studied, modified, controlled, or developed the materials that improve the quality of your life.

Materials scientists and engineers study the relationship between a material's structure, its properties, and its performance in applications. For example, a materials engineer might develop a "smart material" to use in skis that would automatically adjust its stiffness to dampen vibrations at high speeds. Others might study high-temperature materials that protect the space shuttle and allow greater thrust-to-weight ratios and high-speed performance in today's state-of-the-art aircraft, or design sensors for your car that can adjust engine performance and handling over a wide range of driving conditions.

Careers and Employers
Materials scientists and engineers are found in every sector of industry: aerospace, automotive, communications, electronics, energy, metals production, packaging, textiles, and surface coatings. They are called metallurgists, ceramic engineers, polymer chemists, ceramists, plastics engineers and metallurgical engineers. Recent employers of EMS graduates in materials science include: 3M, IBM, Motorola, Lucent Technologies, U.S. Steel, Alcoa, Cleveland Cliffs, AK Steel, Sermatec.

Salaries
Median annual earnings of materials engineers were $73,990 in 2006. The middle 50 percent earned between $57,850 and $92,210. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $46,120, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $112,140.

In 2007, Bachelor's degree candidates in materials engineering received starting offers averaging $56,233 a year.

Information from U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook

Curriculum
The curriculum in materials science and engineering includes basic instruction in math (including calculus and ordinary and partial differential equations), physics, and chemistry. These courses provide the foundation for future work in thermodynamics, kinetics, phase transformations, materials properties, processing and characterization. Students begin their studies with similar courses in the first two years of study and select an option for specialization—metals, polymers, ceramics, or electronic and photonic materials—before the junior year. A senior research project and thesis are required.