Materials Science & Engineering

Materials Science and Engineering

Materials advancements across all engineering disciplines.

Materials Science and Engineering

The image shows the human stem cell–derived cardiac microtissue grown
on a fiber-based scaffold fabricated using a laser-guided bioprinting technology
(Red: cell nuclei, Green: cardiomyocytes, Blue: fibers).
Image credit to Zhen Ma, Ph.D.

Materials Science and Engineering

At left, a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of an iron BDP MOF crystal
at right, an iron BDP MOF single-crystal device bonded to a platinum microelectrode array.
(Credit: Berkeley Lab)

The Department of Materials Science & Engineering remains closed due to "shelter-in-place" currently in effect. Please check faculty and staff individual pages for current contact information.

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Innovating Materials, Research, and Education for the Future of Engineering.

MSE Spotlight

Faculty Spotlight: Junqiao Wu

Where did you study? I studied physics in my undergraduate in Fudan University in Shanghai, China, and also got a MS degree in physics from Peking University, China. I came to the U.S. and obtained my PhD degree in the Applied Science and Technology Graduate Program in UC Berkeley. After a postdoc research at Harvard…

Faculty Spotlight: Matthew Sherburne

Where did you study? I went back to school after working and restarted my education at American River Community College in Sacramento, CA. Then I transferred to UC Berkeley and majored in Materials Science and Mineral Engineering and Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. Enjoying school, I decided to stay at…

Faculty Spotlight: Kristin Persson

Where did you study? I received a Master of Science in Engineering Physics at the Lund Institute of Technology in 1996. In the same year, I joined the Theoretical Physics Department at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm as a graduate student. Five years later, I defended my Ph.D. Thesis on ‘Thermodynamic and Dynamic…

Student Spotlight: Avni Singhal

Why did you choose to study MSE? I first learned about materials science during high school while working on solar cell research that happened to fall under the university’s MSE department. I still wasn’t entirely sure what MSE was, but really liked the lab I was part of, and started to learn more about the exciting…

Student Spotlight: Steven Alvarez

Why did you choose to study MSE? I was drawn to the field of MSE because of its interdisciplinary nature and broad areas of impact. I was first exposed to materials sciences and engineering through research experiences. As a Chemical Engineering undergraduate, I had the opportunity to do research that involved engineering materials for targeted…

Student Spotlight: Enze Chen

Why did you choose to study MSE? I loved the nanomaterials lab that I worked in during high school, and after I naively told my mentor that it inspired me to study “chemical engineering” in college, she responded, “Oh, OK, but you do know this field is called ‘materials science’ right?” Then in my undergrad,…

Student Spotlight: Martin Siron

Why did you choose to study MSE? I was a Chemical Engineering major with an emphasis in nanotechnology in undergrad. Part of that degree involved spending some time in a research lab and taking some materials classes. That exposed me to the big picture problems that materials scientist and engineers tackle. I’ve also always been…

Student Spotlight: Ann Rutt

Why did you choose to study MSE? I settled on majoring in Materials Science & Engineering in college because chemistry was my favorite subject in high school and I liked learning about science at the small scale. But I wanted to go into a field that would connect science to ‘real world’ applications so…

Faculty Spotlight: Lane Martin

Where did you study? I grew up primarily in rural western Pennsylvania. After looking all around, I ultimately chose to do my undergraduate work at Carnegie Mellon University. I actually started as a Chemical Engineering major and after just a semester realized that I did like it and it didn’t like me! For a…

Student Spotlight: Ruijuan Xu

Why did you choose to study MSE? During high school, I was interested in almost all the science courses, but this also makes it difficult for me to decide which college major I should focus on. One of the reasons to choose MSE at the beginning was simply because it’s an interdisciplinary field that incorporates…