Welcome from the Chair

Robert L. Snyder |Professor and Chair

The School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech is one of the strongest in the world with 38 thesis sponsoring faculty. Our undergraduate and graduate programs are routinely ranked among the nations leading programs by U.S. News and World Report. Our offices, classrooms, study areas and laboratories are located in a new state-of-the-art facility, the J. Erskine Love, Jr. Manufacturing Building.  We offer degrees in Materials Science and Engineering at the bachelor's, master's and Ph.D. levels.  Our undergraduate program is small and 100% of our students have a research experience before graduating.  MSE students are among the best in the nation and have the highest SAT scores at Georgia Tech!  We currently have 136 undergraduates and 253 graduate students in our program.  Eleven of our graduate students hold prestigious external Scholarships while another 15 are Georgia Tech Presidential Scholars with an additional 11 students receiving other internal distinguished fellowships.  Eighteen students received awards for their research last year. Most are active in student professional organizations such as the Georgia Tech Chapters of the American Ceramic Society, ASM International, TMS and several other honor societies.  All of our graduate students receive attractive financial  assistance in the form of graduate fellowships and assistantships.

We are proud of the programs we have to offer. Our distinguished group of faculty scholars have authored over 60 books, publishing over 700 scientific papers each year, holding hundreds of patents on fundamental advances in materials engineering, presenting over 450 conference talks per year and attracting over $15 million in annual research funding.  We are among leaders of all of Schools at Georgia Tech in the amount of research funding per faculty member and our faculty lead 14 major interdisciplinary research centers including centers devoted to Nanotechnology, Bioengineering, Molecular Design, Electronic Packaging and Photonics. Materials research at Georgia Tech is comprehensive, addressing all major technologies that will improve our lives in the coming years.  In addition to fundamental research, emerging technologies are routinely being explored at Tech in terms of patents and new product development/enhancement ideas. Numerous new industries have been founded based on research originating in MSE.  Research in our School today is at the leading edge of defining tomorrow's world.  Materials research areas include: 

• Biologically Enabled and Genetically Engineered Materials
• Self-assembled Nanostructures and Nanocomposites
• Materials Design and Computational Predicted Materials
• One-dimensional Nanostructures for Nanoelectronics, Actuating and Sensing
• Electronic, Magnetic, Semiconducting and Superconducting Materials
• Functionally Graded and "Smart" Materials
• Oncological Materials and Biological Responses to Materials
• Photonic and Opto-electronic Materials
• Modeling Hierarchical Microstructures (casting alloys, Ni-basesuperalloys)
• Conducting, Semiconducting and Nanostructured Polymers
• Multifunctional Structural Energetic Materials
• Nanocomposite Magnetic Materials
• Corrosion and Stress Corrosion Cracking, Fracture Mechanics,Fatigue
• Fracture Mechanics and Durability of Advanced StructuralMaterials
• Advanced Materials Characterization
• Soft Materials and Interfacial effects
• Light Weight High Strength Cellular Alloys
• Super-hydrophobic Materials - The Lotus Effect
• Advanced Materials Manufacturing:
• Biologically Enabled Materials
• Micro/nanodevices
• Near Net Shape Processing
• Advanced Reaction Processing
• Low Temperature Chemical Syntheses
• Advanced Metals, Ceramic, Polymers and Composites for:
• Next Generation Space Shuttle and Rocket Materials
• Fuel Cells & sustainable energy research
• Nanomaterials and Nanomachines
• Integrated Circuits, LEDs, Packaging, Latency
• Ion Engines for NASA Deep Space Exploration
• Form Fitting B4C Body Armor / Advanced Security Systems
• Biomedical Applications, Drug Delivery, Bone Scaffolds, etc.

In all probability the most important technological event to occur in our lifetimes is the cracking of the genetic code of our entire biosphere.  This effort, now underway, is creating a tidal wave of information that will transform our technology to the core.  The School of MSE at Georgia Tech continues to evolve and act in a leadership role blazing the trail into this new technological world. 

To obtain further information about the Materials Science and Engineering Program at Georgia Tech, please call 404.894.2852 or request information below.

Robert L. Snyder
Professor and Chair
School of Materials Science and Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology

MSE Mission Statement

The mission of the School of Materials Science and Engineering is to provide a broad education in materials science and engineering to meet the needs of industry, academia and government; to conduct interdisciplinary research that creates tomorrow’s materials; to lead the international materials community in defining this expanding discipline for the 21st century.

Strategic Goals

• Expand the faculty in the areas of Nanotechnology, Biotechnology and Computational Materials Design.
• Attract three national Centers funded in each of these areas.
• Continue to appoint prominent Georgia Tech faculty working in leading edge materials-related areas.
  We intend to be the largest school in the U.S.

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