Tufts University - School of Engineering

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.

Die Mission des Zentrums besteht darin, die Fakultät für Materialwissenschaften an der Tufts University in einem gemeinsamen Ziel zu vereinen: 1) Tufts internationale Anerkennung für hervorragende Leistungen in der Materialforschung und -ausbildung zu verschaffen; 2) die nächste Generation von Materialforschern in einem Programm auszubilden, das Spitzenleistungen fördert, und 3) neuartige und hochinnovative Forschung zu betreiben, die das grundlegende und angewandte Wissen im Materialbereich voranbringt.

Die Materialwissenschaft ist von Natur aus ein interdisziplinäres Fachgebiet, dessen Ursprung auf das Zeitalter der Aufklärung zurückgeht, als Wissenschaftler begannen, die Werkzeuge des analytischen Denkens aus Chemie, Physik und Ingenieurwissenschaften in ihren Studien der Metallurgie und Mineralogie zu verwenden. In der modernen Ära haben sich die Hauptstudienfächer für Materialwissenschaftler und Ingenieure natürlich erweitert und umfassen nun auch die Materialien unserer gegenwärtigen technologischen Basis – d. h. Halbleiter, Nanotechnologie und Biomaterialien – sowie die Materialien der Zukunft.

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.
• Photonische und elektromagnetische Materialien: Ein typisches Beispiel für diese Kategorien sind Halbleiter, die die Grundlage für alle unsere modernen computergesteuerten und lichtabsorbierenden/-emittierenden Geräte bilden. Dieses Feld hat eine starke Überschneidung mit Physik und Elektrotechnik und umfasst Themen wie Supraleiter, Spintronik, Metamaterialien und topologische Isolatoren. Es gibt eine weitere Überschneidung mit dem Bereich moderner fluoreszierender Materialien für Markierungen und Sensoren, insbesondere in biomedizinischen Anwendungen.
• 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.