MSc in Materials Science and Engineering

Materials scientists study how the history of a material influences its structure and properties, advancing understanding in research areas that include metallurgy, solid-state physics, and biomaterials.

Tufts faculty have strengths in soft, structural, electronic, computational, and nanomaterials. From drug delivery to semiconductors to nano-enabled membranes for water treatment, materials science and engineering at Tufts offer graduate students a wide array of opportunities to study and develop materials that will change the world.

Materials Science and Engineering M.S. Program

The master’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering is an interdisciplinary program, with students pursuing classes across multiple departments to achieve mastery in the field.

Tufts Interdisciplinary Advanced Materials (TIAMAT) Center

The Tufts Interdisciplinary Advanced Materials (TIAMAT) Center unifies more than four dozen Tufts faculty members whose technical interests include materials science. They come from nine departments across the Schools of Engineering and Arts & Sciences. While materials research has been a long-time significant strength at Tufts, the lack of a unifying center has caused it to fly under the radar. With the launch of TIAMAT, we are now able to pursue the fruits of our shared strength.

Uppdraget för centret är att förena materialfakulteten vid Tufts i ett gemensamt syfte: 1) Ge Tufts internationellt erkännande för excellens inom materialforskning och utbildning; 2) Utbilda nästa generations materialforskare i ett program som odlar spetskompetens, och 3) Producera ny och mycket innovativ forskning som främjar grundläggande och tillämpad kunskap om material.

Materialvetenskap är medfödd ett tvärvetenskapligt område som har sitt ursprung tillbaka till upplysningstiden när forskare började använda verktygen för analytiskt tänkande från kemi, fysik och ingenjörsvetenskap i sina studier av metallurgi och mineralogi. I den moderna eran har de huvudsakliga studieämnena för materialvetare och ingenjörer naturligtvis utökats till att omfatta materialen i vår nuvarande tekniska bas – dvs halvledare, nanoteknik och biomaterial – såväl som att se till framtidens material.

In recent years, there has been considerable growth and excitement in several areas of materials science, all of which are already represented by research here at Tufts. These areas include:

• Nanomaterials: The study of material in which the common descriptive unit of size is 1-100 nm. Materials with nanometer-scale features tend to have unique mechanical, catalytic, and electro-optical properties. A wide variety of aspects of this topic are of interest to the researchers in the center. Applications vary from nano-enabled membranes for water treatment to nanostructured devices for novel electronic devices.
• Soft-materials and bio-materials: This area includes any bulk material, construct, or surface that interacts with or is composed of a biological system. While this field is young, it has seen explosive growth and includes overlap with medicine, tissue engineering, biology, and chemistry. Biomaterials are used today for drug delivery, surgery, and dental applications.
• Fotoniska och elektromagnetiska material: Ett arketypiskt exempel på dessa kategorier skulle vara halvledare, som ligger till grund för alla våra moderna datoriserade och ljusabsorberande/emitterande enheter. Detta område har en stark överlappning med fysik och elektroteknik och inkluderar ämnen som supraledare, spintronik, metamaterial och topologiska isolatorer. Det finns en ytterligare övergång till området för avancerade fluorescerande material för märkning och avkänning, i synnerhet i biomedicinska tillämpningar.
• Computational materials science: With the vast improvements in computing power over the last several decades, simulating complex materials systems has become possible. This allows for the modeling of materials at all length scales using methods such as kinetic Monte Carlo, density functional theory, and molecular dynamics.

TIAMAT seeks bright young minds to join us in our M.S. and Joint-Ph.D. programs and to help us take the lead in establishing the next chapter in materials research.