Materials Science and Engineering

The Department of Materials Science and Engineering offers graduate programs leading to the degrees of Master of Applied Science (MASc), Master of Engineering (MEng), and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). Graduate courses and research opportunities are offered to qualified students in a wide range of subjects. The department covers a diverse range of research areas in the structure, processing and characterization of metal alloys, advanced ceramic coatings, semiconductor devices, nanocomposites and biomaterials. Also, there is a strong emphasis on simulation and computational modelling.

Typical subjects in chemical metallurgy involve a study of the equilibria existing during the reduction of oxides with carbon and metals, properties of iron and steelmaking slags, kinetics of high-temperature reactions, mathematical modelling of metallurgical processes, process metallurgy, and hydrometallurgy. Typical physical metallurgy and materials science subjects deal with the structure and properties of metallic, ceramic, and polymeric materials in such fields as plastic deformation, surface properties, electron microscopy, biomaterials, nuclear materials, nanocomposites, metallic glasses, corrosion, fatigue, welding and bonding, phase transformations and solidification.

These studies are all related to the general problem of understanding structure-property-processing relationships in materials, the design of advanced materials and devices, and developing highly-efficient, environmentally-responsible materials processing and manufacturing that considers life cycle analysis and material recycling.