Materials play a central role in the performance and reliability of virtually every technology and living organism. The central theme of materials science and engineering is that the relationships between the structure, properties, processing, and performance of materials are crucial to their function. Materials scientists seek to understand these fundamental relationships, synthesize new materials, develop improved processes for making materials, and understand the role of materials in the functioning of biological organisms. The wide range of problems addressed makes materials science once of the most highly interdisciplinary and dynamic engineering disciplines. The Materials Science and Engineering faculty strives to maintain the Johns Hopkins University tradition of training a small number of students of the highest quality. We measure our success by the impact our graduates have on the scientific and engineering communities. Our program is designed to provide a solid foundation for future career development for students with diverse career aspirations.

Our current program educational objectives are stated as follows: Graduates of the Materials Science and Engineering Program: 1. Pursue careers that include advanced graduate studies in materials science and engineering or careers in related areas of science and engineering or professional disciplines that benefit from an understanding of materials science and engineering such as medicine, business or law. 2. Employ elements of the research process in their careers including the use of: critical reasoning to identify fundamental issues and establish directions for investigation creative processes to define specific plans for problem solution analytical thought to interpret results and place them within a broader context.