Materials Science and Engineering Programming

Washington State University has the largest interdisciplinary doctoral program in materials science and engineering in the Northwest. Since its establishment in the 1960s, it has evolved into a strongly collaborative, vibrant interdisciplinary program with the participation of faculty from several departments and schools in the Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture and the College of Arts and Sciences.

Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) underpins nearly all technological development in the modern world. The dreams of scientists and engineers to effect societal change become reality only when a new material or phenomenon is discovered, invented or engineered.

This cross-disciplinary approach to this program enables students to have access to a wide range of state-of-the-art research facilities from mechanical, materials, civil, chemical and bioengineering, physics and chemistry. Our graduate students may take advantage of our strong ties with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) by participating in a special research internship program (WARIAC), which allows them to complete part of their PhD research while being resident at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory at PNNL for one to two semesters. Most of our students go on to work in academia, Fortune 500 companies and the national laboratories.

More than 50% of our internationally renowned faculty members are fellows of their professional societies, and many have leadership roles in professional organizations, industrial consulting, and various federal government panels. Some of our faculty members have collaborations with WSU’s highly ranked life sciences programs such as plant sciences, veterinary medicine and agriculture.