Materials Science and Engineering

More detailed requirements for students enrolling at JHU for Fall 2025 will be available on this page when the JHU e-Catalogue is published in early July.

Overview

​​Materials are essential to the implementation of any engineered technology, from the smallest integrated circuit to the strongest artificial muscles to the longest bridge. In almost every technology, the performance, reliability, or cost is determined by the materials used. As a result, the drive to develop new materials and processes (or to improve existing ones) makes materials science and engineering one of the most important and dynamic engineering disciplines. Because the field encompasses so many different areas, it is often categorized according to types of materials (metals, ceramics, polymers, semiconductors) or to their applications (biomaterials, electronic materials, magnetic materials, or structural materials).

​The central theme of materials science and engineering is that the relationships among the structure, properties, processing, and performance of materials are crucial to their function in engineering structures. Materials scientists seek to understand these fundamental relationships, and use this understanding to develop new ways for making materials or to synthesize new materials. Materials engineers design or select materials for particular applications and develop improved processing techniques. Since materials scientists and engineers must understand the properties of materials as well as their applications, the field is inherently interdisciplinary, drawing on aspects of almost every other engineering discipline as well as physics, chemistry, and biology.​

Programs

​​Three BS degree tracks are offered by the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

Research

Materials are crucial to the performance and reliability of virtually every technology and the vitality and health of any living organism. Materials scientists seek to understand the connections between the structure of materials and their properties, how particular properties can be achieved through suitable processing, and the subsequent performance of the materials in a myriad of modern technologies. The faculty and students in our department seek to improve the performance of existing materials, synthesize new materials, and understand materials in all their roles. Whether we are devising new lab devices to provide researchers an unprecedented look at metastasis, collaborating with other universities to enhance fuel efficiency and durability, utilizing reactive nanomaterials to destroy deadly bioagents, or studying the deformation of materials to strengthen infrastructure, our mission remains the same: improving materials to improve society.

Research Areas are:

Biomaterials Concentration

Biomaterials is an exciting and rapidly developing field at the interface of materials science, engineering, biology, chemistry, and medicine. It is an interdisciplinary field that requires thorough understanding of materials properties and interactions of materials with the biological environment. Our unique biomaterials program is designed to provide a broad educational basis with emphasis on principles and applications of biomaterials. It is designed to provide a firm grounding in the physics, chemistry, and biology of materials, as well as breadth in general engineering, mathematics, humanities and social science. Our curriculum covers a variety of topics including biomimetic materials and natural materials, host responses to biomaterials and biocompatibility, as well as applications of biomaterials, particularly to tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, drug delivery, medical devices and implants. Students enrolled in this concentration will take a series of lecture courses and a laboratory course, as well as conduct a senior design project focusing on design, synthesis, processing, characterization, and applications of biomaterials. The goal of the biomaterials concentration in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering is to train students in the basic principles of materials science and engineering as they apply to the development of novel biomaterials that benefit human health. Students under this concentration will receive among the best educations for successful careers in biomaterials engineering or biomedically-related fields.

Nanotechnology Concentration

Nanotechnology advances the utilization of materials and devices with extremely small dimensions. Nanotechnology is a visionary field, as micro- and nano-structured devices impact all fields of engineering, from microelectronics (smaller, faster computer chips) to mechanical engineering (micromotors and actuators) to civil engineering (“smart”, self-healing nanocomposite materials for buildings and bridges) to biomedical engineering (drug delivery, biosensors and tissue engineering). Materials science is central to nanotechnology because the properties of materials can change dramatically when things are made extremely small. A wide (and sometimes unexpected!) variety of phenomena associated with nanostructured materials allow us to envision radically new devices and applications that can only be made with nanostructured materials. Under the nanotechnology concentration, the Department of Materials Science and Engineering offers a curriculum designed to train students in the fundamental interdisciplinary principles of materials science including physics and chemistry, and also expose students to cutting edge nanomaterials research, both through elective classes and in research laboratories. Students in the nanotechnology concentration will be well prepared for successful careers in materials science and engineering across a wide range of disciplines.

After Graduation

​​Our undergraduate alumni have go on to pursue further degrees in Materials Science, both at the masters and PhD level as well as medical, dental and law school. The students who do not pursue an advance degree go into industry with companies such as Boston Scientific, Schneider Electric, Amgen, Amazon, etc. or consulting firms like Deloitte and Booz Allen Hamilton. We also have alumni in government research labs.​

Activities

​​Materials Research Society (MRS) and Society for Biomaterials.​