Research Areas

Faculty and students in the department are heavily involved in research and project-based learning initiatives in various areas.
  • Fundamental mechanisms of friction, wear, and lubrication
  • Renewable power generation, and efficient buildings
  • Processing: friction stir welding, ultra-fine grain, and high temp mechanical behavior
  • Nanomaterials, biomimetics, catalysts.
  • Structural, physical, and chemical behavior in ceramics, glasses, metals, composites, and nanomaterials
  • Modeling of deformation, fracture, defect evolution, and phase transformations in materials
  • Characterization, development, and processing of metal systems
  • Combining integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) with advanced processing and characterization approaches.
  • Atomic to millimeter scale engineering of surfaces that are critical in nanoelectronics, ultra-high temperature coatings
Two researchers in yellow hazmat suit conducting research in lab

Research Labs

Research groups and labs are led by faculty members and typically consist of PhD, MS, BS students, and often include Postdoctoral fellows.
Lab equipment

Research Facilities

The department hosts facilities and labs equipped with advanced equipment, able to conduct various kinds of materials research.
Materials Science and Engineering Tetrahedra showing the four aspects of materials science

Research Aspects of Materials Science

The Materials Science and Engineering Tetrahedra below highlight and describe the relationships among the many aspects of materials science:
  • Synthesis and processing
    Developing new materials and modifying materials after or during their manufacture.
  • Structure and characterization
    Studying the manner in which atoms are arranged using a wide variety of instrumentation.
  • Properties
    How materials behave or interact with the environment such as how they conduct heat.
  • Modeling and simulation
    Using mathematical and computational tools to study and predict structure, properties, and processing.