Materials Science and Engineering (MATSE)

GARY L. MESSING, Head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering
121 Steidle Building
814-865-0497

JAMES P. RUNT, Associate Head of Graduate Studies; Department of Materials Science and Engineering
101 Steidle Building
814-863-2749

Degrees Conferred: Ph.D., M.S.

The Graduate Faculty

James H. Adair, Ph.D. (Florida) Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
David Allara, Ph.D. (California, Los Angeles) Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and Chemistry
William R. Bitler, Ph.D. (Carnegie Tech) Professor Emeritus of Metallurgy
Paul W. Brown, Ph.D. (Wisconsin) Professor of Ceramic Science and Engineering
Long-Qing Chen, Ph.D. (MIT) Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
T. C. (Mike) Chung, Ph.D. (Pennsylvania) Professor of Polymer Science
Ralph H. Colby, Ph.D. (Northwestern) Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Michael M. Coleman, Ph.D. (Case Western Reserve) Professor Emeritus of Polymer Science
Tarasankar DebRoy, Ph.D. (Inst of Science, Bangalore) Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Elizabeth C. Dickey, Ph.D. (Northwestern) Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Venkatraman Gopalan, Ph.D. (Cornell) Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
David J. Green, Ph.D. (McMaster) Professor of Ceramic Science and Engineering
Craig A. Grimes, Ph.D. (Texas) Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering
Ian R. Harrison, Ph.D. (Case Western Reserve) Professor of Polymer Science
John R. Hellmann, Ph.D. (Penn State) Associate Professor of Ceramic Science and Engineering
Paul R. Howell, Ph.D. (Cambridge) Professor of Metallurgy
Donald A. Koss, Ph.D. (Yale) Professor of Metallurgy
Silai V. Krishnaswamy, Ph.D. (Penn State) Adjunct Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Sanat Kumar, Ph.D. (MIT) Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Michael T. Lanagan, Ph.D. (Penn State) Senior Research Associate; Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Zi-Kui Liu, Ph.D. (Royal Institute of Technology) Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Digby D. Macdonald, Ph.D. (Calgary) Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Evangelos Manias, Ph.D. (Groningen) Virginia S. and Philip L. Walker Faculty Fellow; Assistant
Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Janna K. Maranas, Ph.D. (Princeton) Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering
Gary L. Messing, Ph.D. (Florida) Professor of Ceramic Science and Engineering
Suzanne E. Mohney, Ph.D. (Wisconsin) Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Robert. E. Newnham, Ph.D. (Penn State, Cambridge) Professor Emeritus of Solid State Science
Kwadwo Osseo-Asare, Ph.D. (California) Professor of Metallurgy
Paul C. Painter, Ph.D. (Case Western Reserve) Professor of Polymer Science
Carlo G. Pantano, Ph.D. (Florida) Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Howard W. Pickering, Ph.D. (Ohio State) Distinguished Professor of Metallurgy
Clive A. Randall, Ph.D. (Essex) Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Joan Redwing, Ph.D. (Wisconsin) Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Guy Rindone, Ph.D. (Penn State) Professor Emeritus of Ceramic Science and Engineering
James P. Runt, Ph.D. (Penn State) Professor of Polymer Science; Associate Head of Graduate Studies
Jerzy Ruzyllo, Ph.D. (Warsaw U of Tech) Professor of Electrical Engineering
Earle R. Ryba, Ph.D. (Iowa State) Associate Professor of Metallurgy
Darrell Schlom, Ph.D. (Stanford) Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
George Simkovich, Ph.D. (Penn State) Professor Emeritus of Materials Science
Jogender Singh, Ph.D. (Banaras) Senior Scientist; Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Karl E. Spear, Ph.D., (Kansas) Professor Emeritus of Ceramic Science
Vladimir S. Stubican, Dr.Phil., D.Sc. (Zagreb) Professor Emeritus of Materials Science and Engineering
Peter A. Thrower, Ph.D. (Cambridge) Professor Emeritus of Materials Science
Richard E. Tressler, Ph.D., (Penn State) Professor Emeritus of Materials Science and Engineering
Susan Trolier-McKinstry, Ph.D. (Penn State) Corning Faculty Fellow and Professor of Materials
Science and Engineering
Erwin Vogler, Ph.D. (Indiana) Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Chao-Yang Wang, Ph.D. (Iowa) Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineeering, and Materials Science and Engineering
Qing Wang, Ph.D. (Chicago) Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
William O. Williamson, D.Sc. (London) Professor Emeritus of Ceramic Science and Engineering
Xiaoxing Xi, Ph.D. (Peking) Associate Professor of Physics, and Materials Science and Engineering

The graduate program in Materials Science and Engineering offers comprehensive graduate education in the fundamentals of materials science (synthesis–structure–property–performance relationships) applied to inorganic and structural materials; electronic and photonic materials; polymers and biomaterials; and computational and fundamental materials science. Students may choose to study across the major themes of materials today including materials in energy applications, nanotechnology, materials in medicine, materials in communications, materials for sensor applications, structural materials, etc., by using a combination of MATSE courses and a myriad of materials-related courses offered in the science and engineering departments at Penn State.

Admission Requirements

Scores for the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) are required for admission, though this requirement may be waived at the discretion of the departmental graduate admission committee. The best-qualified applicants will be accepted up to the number of spaces available for new students. The degree requirements listed here are in addition to the general Graduate School requirements stated in the GENERAL INFORMATION section of the Graduate Bulletin.

Master's Degree Requirements

The graduate program for the M.S. degree must include a total of at least 30 credits. Subject to the approval of the graduate program coordinator, a maximum of 10 credits of high-quality graduate work done at an accredited U.S. institution may be applied toward the requirements for the master’s degree. A minimum of 6 research credits (MATSE 600) is required. The minimum number of formal course credits (excluding seminar MATSE 590) required is 18 for all students. All candidates for advanced degrees are also expected to attend MATSE 590 colloquium. A thesis describing independent research performed by the student shall be written and defended at an oral examination. Bound copies will be made available for the University Libraries and the thesis adviser. A thesis committee shall administer the final oral examination of the thesis. The committee shall consist of at least three graduate faculty members.

M.S. Requirements (Summary)—minimum total credits: 30; minimum research credits: 6; minimum formal course credits: 18; minimum 500-level credits: 12; minimum credits in the major: 12; seminar: 2 credits per year; minimum GPA: 3.00.

Doctoral Degree Requirements

The general requirements are based upon a period of residence, the writing of a satisfactory thesis and its acceptance by the doctoral committee and the Graduate School, the passing of the comprehensive examination. A doctoral program consists of a combination of courses, seminars and research that fulfills the minimum requirements of the Graduate School and is approved by the doctoral committee for each individual student. A master’s degree is not a prerequisite for the doctorate. However, the first year of graduate study leading to the Ph.D. may be the same as that provided for the M.S. degree.
Acceptance into the Ph.D. program is based on the student’s performance on the Ph.D. candidacy exam, which is administered by a graduate candidacy exam committee of the department. Although there is no specified requirement by the graduate school for the number of course credits for a Ph.D. degree, the department requires a minimum of 18 credits of 500-level courses courses for completing a doctoral degree. The specific courses are determined by the student and the adviser in consultation with the student’s doctoral committee. A student with a M.S. degree from Penn State can use the 500-level credits earned during his or her M.S. study to fulfill the course requirements. Upon approval by the doctoral committee and the graduate program coordinator, a student with an M.S. degree from another U.S. university may use a maximum of 10 credits from that school to partially fulfill the course requirement.

—Candidacy exam: (Offered twice a year: at the beginning of spring and fall semesters) Students will write a research proposal and give a presentation on the proposal to three members of the MATSE candidacy committee, whose members will ask questions about the proposal and the student’s prior course work. The student will choose a topic for the proposal from three provided by the faculty committee, chosen to reflect the interest area(s) of the individual candidate. Students will be given three weeks to write the proposal and turn it into the MATSE graduate office. The oral presentation will take place seven to ten days after the written paper is submitted.
—Minimum formal course requirement (This is not required by the University, but required by the department): 18 credits of 500-level courses after B.S. (The courses to be taken are determined by the adviser and a thesis committee, having a minimum of four members with at least one outside of the department.)
—Comprehensive exam: Progress report and thesis proposal (five to ten pages) provided to the student’s doctoral committee. An oral presentation is given to the research committee, followed by questions on the written and oral presentations.
—Seminar: 2 credits of MATSE 590 per year, until comprehensive exam is passed
—Minimum GPA: 3.0
—Thesis: A written thesis and an oral defense administrated by the doctoral committee

Student Aid

Top graduate applicants will be automatically nominated for a number of graduate fellowships in the department, including the University Graduate Fellowship, the Materials Research Institute Fellowship, the Wilson Fellowship of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, and the University Minority Scholar Fellowship. Graduate assistantships available to students in this program and other forms of student aid are described in the STUDENT AID section of the Graduate Bulletin.

Graduate courses carry numbers from 500 to 599 and 800 to 899. Advanced undergraduate courses numbered between 400 and 499 may be used to meet some graduate degree requirements when taken by graduate students. Courses below the 400 level may not. A graduate student may register for or audit these courses in order to make up deficiencies or to fill in gaps in previous education but not to meet requirements for an advanced degree.

MATERIALS SCIENCE (MATSC) course list

MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING (MATSE) course list

The Pennsylvania State University © 2004

The University reserves the right to change the requirements and regulations listed here and to determine whether a student has satisfactorily met its requirements for admission or graduation, and to reject any applicant for any reason the University determines to be material to the applicant's qualifications to pursue higher education. Nothing in this material should be considered a guarantee that completion of a program and graduation from the University will result in employment.

This electronic Graduate Bulletin is a version of the official bulletin of The Pennsylvania State University. It is suggested that users refer to this electronic bulletin when seeking the latest information about the University's academic programs and courses. Printed versions of the Bulletin are also official copies of the programs, courses, and policies in effect at the time of printing.

DATE LAST REVIEWED BY THE GRADUATE SCHOOL: 5/14/03

DATE LAST REVIEWED BY PUBLICATIONS: 9/7/06