Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern

The Department    

The Department of Materials Science and Engineering is recognized throughout the materials community for its educational and research accomplishments. Since it was established as the first materials science academic department in the world more than 50 years ago, the department has continued to lead the field. Faculty members are renowned for their research excellence and have been honored around the world for pioneering work. Department alumni are likewise leaders in academia, industry, professional organizations and entrepreneurial efforts.

Mission: Our department’s mission today continues the farsighted and broad vision of its founders:

• To provide a well-rounded education in materials science and engineering to meet the needs of industry, academia, and government
• To give definition to the evolving discipline
• To conduct frontier research
• To provide leadership in the interdisciplinary materials community
  

Collaborative Research

Strong interdisciplinary research is a hallmark of MSE at Northwestern. Collaborations include most other Northwestern engineering and science departments, the Feinberg School of Medicine and national laboratories, especially nearby Argonne National Laboratory which includes the Advanced Photon Source and the Center for Nanoscale Materials. Northwestern is home to an exceptional number of materials-related interdisciplinary centers; of 26 University Centers, Materials Science and Engineering faculty members direct or participate in 11. Half the MSE faculty participates in Energy Frontier Research Centers funded by DOE in 2009; two EFRCs are located at Northwestern and another two are centered at nearby Argonne National Laboratory. These interdisciplinary efforts comprise one of the broadest MSE programs in the nation and provide students with ample opportunities to work on cross-disciplinary research.

Interdisciplinary Research Centers

Much of the materials-related research at Northwestern involves collaborations between faculty and student members of various centers. These include: the Materials Research Center (MRC or NU-MRSEC), the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NU-NSEC), the Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence (NU-CCNE), the International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN), the Institute for Bionanotechnology in Medicine (IBNAM), the Center for Catalysis and Surface Science (CCSS), the Northwestern Synchrotron Research Center (NSRC), Argonne/ Northwestern Solar Energy Research Center (ANSER), Northwestern University Atomic and Nanoscale Characterization Experimental Center (NUANCE), the Initiative for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern (ISEN) and the Non-equilibrium Energy Research Center (NERC).

Link to Undergraduate Program Objectives and Outcomes

Link to Graduate Program Description

The Campus

A major private research university, Northwestern has 6,500 graduate students and 7,500 undergraduate students. The Evanston campus, 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, is home to the undergraduate programs and graduate programs in engineering, management, the arts and sciences, music, speech, education and social policy, and journalism.

Extracurricular resources on the Evanston campus include Big Ten sports events; performances by visiting artists as well as Northwestern’s music, theater, and dance faculty and students; film showings; game rooms and gathering rooms in the student center; water sports and a private beach. The Henry Crown Sports Pavilion and Norris Aquatics Center houses an Olympic-sized swimming pool; a conditioning room; tennis, squash, and racquetball courts; and a jogging track. Surrounding the campus is the city of Evanston, with restaurants, theaters, a central business district, and a cosmopolitan population of 70,000.