Information for Graduate Students
The Department of Materials Science and Engineering offers graduate education and research programs in the structure, properties, processing and performance of materials. Emphasis is placed on developing an understanding of the general principles that govern the properties of materials using both macroscopic and microscopic points of view.
The Department provides a broad based graduate education in materials, one component of which emphasizes the commonality among the various classes of engineering solids. Thus thermodynamics, kinetics, structural analysis and crystallography, defect theory, and principles of the solid state are strong features of our program. In addition, other courses relative to the application of materials and the relationships among materials properties, structure, and the manner in which materials have been processed are also offered. Extensive research programs complement formal course work. Active recent programs on environmental effects on material behavior, electronic materials, metals, polymers, tribology, composite materials, computational materials, and materials processing reflect the diversity of the faculty's research interests. The Department houses the Center for Light Metals, The Center for Electrochemical Sciences and Engineering, The NSF-MRSEC Center for the Nanoscopic Design of Materials, The MURI-Multi University Research Initiative, and the Intelligent Processing of Materials Laboratory.
Virginia Space Grant Consortium
The Materials Science and Engineering department is one of four departments at the University of Virginia participating in this program. Students declare themselves as VCES applicants and go through the standard procedure of being accepted by a chosen university graduate school. A course of study is determined with his/her major professor with the assistance of the VCES Director and resident faculty. The applicants may also obtain support for their research at NASA, the member universities, the Space Grant Consortium or other sources. Students will get full resident credit by attending classes locally, the same as on any member university campus. Students can take up to 50% of their courses from VCES universities other than the one which grants their degree. For further information on this program, please refer to www.vsg.odu.edu/.
