Metals Science and Engineering Option

The Metals Science and Engineering Program has a long and rich history at Penn State. Its roots were established with the academic program in metallurgy founded in 1907. Today the Metals Science and Engineering Program, along with programs in Ceramic Science and Engineering, Electronic and Photonic Materials, and Polymer Science and Engineering, comprise the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.

Suggested Curriculum (PDF File)

Undergraduate Handbook (PDF File)

Metals Faculty

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Metals Science and Engineering Introduction

Metals have been used for thousands of years. They have played a major role in the development of our civilization. Metals are extremely versatile materials. The strength, durability, magnetic, and conductive properties of metals make them useful in a wide range of applications. Today, with new techniques and sophisticated instrumentation, metals are taking on a new shape. Superplastic metals act like putty, and can be used to manufacture stuff with complex shapes. Powdered metals are used for injection molding of home appliances, farm equipment, and automobile parts. Surgeons use shape memory alloy staples that are easily removed with the wave of a hot wand.

All of these new applications were developed by metallurgists who focus on increasing the performance of metals by combining different metallic compounds, manipulating their structure, or manufacturing them in new ways. They also study the imperfections in metal, like its behavior under stress or its rate of oxidation. Metallurgists study corrosion and look for ways to prevent it. They investigate new welding methods, techniques for coating and treating metal surfaces to protect and impart new properties, and look for new ways to combine metals with other materials.

Metallurgists are in great demand across the country. They find careers in the metals industry, in construction and transportation systems, highways, the electronics and aerospace industries, and in consumer products manufacturing.

Metals Undergraduate Option

The undergraduate specialization in Metals Science and Engineering provides an opportunity to explore a broad range of both scientific and engineering principles as applied to metals and alloys,
their extraction, their production, and their use. Although metallurgists are often employed by metals producing industries, an increasingly large number are finding employment in industries that use metals--including those in the electronics and aerospace fields.

To meet the wide range of career opportunities and demands, the Metals Science and Engineering option emphasizes fundamental concepts common to all materials and their application to the engineering design of specific processes or alloys. In addition, the "applied" courses in the curriculum are based on two central themes in metallurgical engineering: processing and properties.

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