Jump To:  Graduate Search  >  Institution  >  College/School  >  Department/Program      

My Saved Schools  |  Print

School Web Site	Program Information	Research
News and Events	Faculty	PhD Programs
Course Catalog

Others also viewed:

• Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
• The Johns Hopkins University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
• Lehigh University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering

View full list

Detailed Information

Programs of Study

The Department of Materials Science and Engineering offers Master of Science in Engineering (M.S.E.) and Ph.D. programs leading to degrees in materials science and engineering. Students may emphasize work in various materials categories or phenomena, although the Department encourages a broad graduate educational experience. Course offerings include basic materials courses in structure of materials, thermodynamics, diffusion, phase transformations, mechanical behavior, and materials characterization. Courses also exist in many areas of special interest, such as corrosion, composites, deformation processing, and failure analysis. The M.S.E. degree, typically completed in one to two years, requires 30 credit hours of graduate study. A research project of up to 6 credit hours or a master’s thesis of 9–11 credit hours is included within this total and often forms the basis for the student’s Ph.D. written examination. The Ph.D. degree, usually completed in four to five years beyond the B.S. degree, requires 18 credit hours of courses beyond the M.S.E. degree, passing grades on a written examination based on advanced undergraduate and graduate-level course material, a research-based oral examination, satisfactory completion of research, and defense of the doctoral dissertation. A precandidate must complete at least 18 credit hours of graded graduate course work registered as a Rackham student while in residence on the Ann Arbor campus. Master's students must complete at least one-half of the minimum required credit hours on the home campus. Each student is also required to complete one teaching assignment prior to the completion of the Ph.D. degree.

Faculty interests are diverse (see the reverse of this page) and fall into five main categories: inorganic materials, organic and biomaterials, electronic materials, structural materials, and computational materials science. Many additional research activities exist in collaboration with other departments and graduate programs.

Research Facilities

The Department occupies approximately 50,000 square feet, primarily in the H. H. Dow Building, but also in the adjacent G. G. Brown Building and the nearby Space Research and Gerstacker Buildings. Research facilities include world-class laboratories for electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction, ion-beam characterization and modification of materials, thin-film deposition, and solid-state device research. Modern instrumentation is added regularly. The Electron Microbeam Analysis Laboratory (EMAL) is a user facility that provides a broad spectrum of analytical equipment for the microstructural and microchemical characterization of materials. The facility includes two dual-beam focused ion beam (FIB) systems; four scanning electron microscopes (SEM); two environmental SEMs; three transmission electron microscopes (TEM) equipped with STEM, XEDS, and EELS; one X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) system; and two atomic force microscopes (AFM). The J. D. Hanawalt X-ray Diffraction Laboratory offers several Rigaku, Phillips, and Siemens X-ray diffractometers. The Michigan Ion Beam Laboratory includes facilities for Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, ion channeling, nuclear reaction analysis, elastic recoil detection, and ion implantation for most of the elements of the periodic table, over a wide energy range. The Lurie Nanofabrication Facility offers complete capabilities for the fabrication and characterization of solid-state materials, devices, and circuits using silicon and compound semiconductors, and organic materials.

Financial Aid

Qualified applicants are eligible for fellowships and teaching or research assistantships that pay stipends of up to $24,486 per calendar year in 2008–09 plus tuition remission and some fringe benefits. Students funded by faculty advisers as research assistants work on research problems that are appropriate for their thesis topic. Teaching and research assistantships carry certain defined responsibilities that are adjusted to the needs of the student and the Department.

Cost of Study

The 2008–09 tuition fee for full-time students was $9314 per term for Michigan residents and $17,533 per term for nonresidents.

Living and Housing Costs

A residence hall contract for room and board for the 2008–09 fall and winter terms ranged in cost from $8590 for a double to $10,250 for a single. Family housing units cost from $871 per month for an unfurnished one-bedroom unit to $1273 per month for a furnished three-bedroom unit. Prices include all utilities except telephone.

Many graduate students live in privately owned off-campus housing, which varies in expense depending on its proximity to the University. Food costs and local restaurant prices are typical of those in smaller cities in the Midwest.

Student Group

The Department has 96 full-time graduate students and 4 part-time students from local industry and research laboratories. Approximately 60 percent of the students are from the United States, and 40 percent are from abroad. Most students receive financial aid from the Department. The Department also has about 130 undergraduate students. The College of Engineering currently enrolls 7,749 students in twelve engineering departments/divisions and more than sixty engineering fields of study. The current total student enrollment on the Ann Arbor campus is 41,028. The student-based Michigan Materials Society is very active.

Location

Ann Arbor is a cultural and cosmopolitan community of approximately 105,000 about 40 miles west of Detroit in southeastern Michigan. Ann Arbor offers world-class orchestras, dance companies, dramatic artists, and musical performers throughout the year. The internationally renowned May Festival of classical music and the Ann Arbor Folk Festival are held annually. Ann Arbor art fairs attract 500,000 patrons from across the nation every July. Recreational facilities are extensive, both on campus and throughout the community.

The University and The College

The University of Michigan, one of the nation’s most distinguished state universities, is internationally recognized in all of its schools and colleges. The 5,899 faculty members and 41,028 students work in a modern environment that includes more than 275 research units. Michigan consistently ranks as a national leader in total research expenditures. The College of Engineering, of which the Department is a part, awards about 1,184 B.S., 782 M.S. and 233 Ph.D. degrees annually. There are 331 faculty members, 500 supporting staff members, 78 research faculty, and more than 59,000 alumni. Many of the programs in the College are rated among the ten best in the nation, and the College itself is often ranked among the top five engineering schools and colleges.

Applying

Applications are accepted for either the fall (September) or winter (January) terms; however, most students are admitted in the fall term. Applications for fall admission should be received by December 15 if financial support is required. Additional information on admission may be obtained from the Department or from the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies.

The Faculty and Their Research

• Michael Atzmon, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences; Ph.D., Caltech, 1985. Materials thermodynamics and kinetics, nanocrystalline and amorphous metal alloys.
• Akram Boukai, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering; Ph.D., Caltech, 2008. Growth and characterization of nanomaterials for energy and electronic applications.
• Rodney C. Ewing, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Geological Sciences and Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences; Ph.D., Stanford, 1974. Radiation effects in complex ceramics and minerals, crystal chemistry of actinides, nuclear materials.
• Steven Forrest, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Physics, and Vice President for Research; Ph.D., Michigan, 1979.
• Amit K. Ghosh, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Mechanical Engineering; Ph.D., MIT, 1972. Superplasticity, deformation processing, advanced metallic materials, composites and laminates, friction stir processing.
• Sharon C. Glotzer, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Physics; Ph.D., Boston University, 1993. Soft materials, polymers, dense liquids, glasses, colloids, and liquid crystals.
• Rachel S. Goldman, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Physics; Ph.D., California, San Diego, 1995. Atomic-scale design of electronic materials; strain relaxation, alloy formation, and diffusion; correlations between microstructure and electronic and optical properties of semiconductor films, nanostructures, and heterostructures.
• Peter Green, Professor and Chair of Materials Science and Engineering; Ph.D., Cornell, 1985. Structure, phase behavior and dynamics of bulk and thin polymer films and polymer nanocomposite systems.
• John W. Halloran, Alfred Holmes White Collegiate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering; Ph.D., MIT, 1977. Ceramic processing, high-temperature superconductors, engineering ceramics.
• J. Wayne Jones, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering; Ph.D., Vanderbilt, 1977. High-temperature materials, fracture, fatigue and creep properties.
• John Kieffer, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering; Ph.D., Clausthal (Germany), 1985. Structural assembly and dynamic response of materials at the nanoscale.
• Jinsang Kim, Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Chemical Engineering; Ph.D., MIT, 2001. Molecular design, synthesis, modification, and self-assembly of smart polymers for biomedical and optoelectronic applications.
• Nicholas Kotov, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Chemical Engineering; Ph.D., Moscow State, 1990. Applications of nanostructured materials to biology and medicine, self-organization of nanocolloidal systems.
• Joerg Lahann, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering; Ph.D., RWTH Aachen,1998. Designer surfaces, advanced polymers, biomimetic materials, microfluidic devices, engineered cellular microenvironments, nanoscale self-assembly.
• Richard M. Laine, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Macromolecular Science and Engineering, and Chemistry; Ph.D., USC, 1973. Inorganic and organometallic precursors, materials chemistry, catalysis.
• Victor Li, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Civil and Environmental Engineering; Ph.D., Brown, 1981. Fiber reinforced cementitious composites, micromechanics, self-healing design, sustainable material development.
• Brian Love, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering; Ph.D., SMU, 1990. Structure/property relationships in polymers, photopolymerization, dispersions and sedimentation, chemorheology, biomaterials.
• John F. Mansfield, Associate Research Scientist; Ph.D., Bristol (England), 1983. Analytical electron microscopy of metals, semiconductors, and superconductors.
• Jyotirmoy Mazumder, Robert H. Lurie Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Mechanical Engineering; Ph.D., Imperial College (London), 1978. Laser-aided manufacturing, atom to application for nonequilibrium synthesis, mathematical modeling, spectroscopic and optical diagnostics of laser materials interaction.
• Joanna Mirecki Millunchick, Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering; Ph.D., Northwestern, 1995. Correlation of structural and theoretical aspects of materials to optical and electrical properties via photoluminescence, hall mobility, and resistivity measurements; fabrication of novel microelectronic devices.
• Xiaoqing Pan, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering; Ph.D., Saarlandes (Germany), 1991. High-resolution electron microscopy, structural-property relationships of materials interfaces, thin-film growth and characterization.
• Tresa Pollock, L. H. and F. E. Van Vlack Professor of Materials Science and Engineering; Ph.D., MIT, 1989. Mechanical behavior, microstructural stability and solidification of high-temperature structural alloys.
• Richard E. Robertson, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Macromolecular Science and Engineering; Ph.D., Caltech, 1960. Polymer structure, molecular dynamics and fracture, fiber composite properties, composite design and manufacturing.
• Anne Marie Sastry, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Mechanical Engineering; Ph.D., Cornell, 1994. Percolation phenomena in multiphase materials; assembly and self-assembly in biomaterials, damage progression in diabetic nerves, modeling of intracellular transport, design of porous structures for energy devices.
• Max Shtein, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering; Ph.D., Princeton, 2004. Structure-property relationships of organic semiconductors and their application to electronic and optoelectronic devices.
• Katsuyo Thornton, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering; Ph.D., Chicago, 1997. Computational and theoretical investigations of the evolution of microstructures and nanostructures and their effects on materials properties.
• Michael D. Thouless, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics; Ph.D., Berkeley, 1984. Mechanical properties of materials, mechanics of thin films, coatings and interfaces, toughening of polymers, mechanical properties of adhesives.
• Anish Tuteja, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering; Ph.D., Michigan State, 2006. Understanding and engineering functional nanoparticle-polymeric systems in which nanoparticles are used to imbue specific surface and bulk properties, soft materials, surface and interfacial science, wettability, polymer nanocomposites, liquid-liquid separations.
• Anton Van der Ven, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering; Ph.D., MIT, 2000. Electronic structure methods (density functional theory), with techniques from statistical mechanics to calculate thermodynamic and kinetic properties of new materials.
• Lumin Wang, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, and Director of Electron Microbeam Analysis Laboratory, Ph.D., Wisconsin–Madison, 1988. Radiation effects, Ion-beam processing of nanostructured materials, transmission electron microscopy.
• Gary S. Was, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences; Sc.D., MIT, 1980. Ion-solid interactions, radiation effects, stress corrosion cracking, hydrogen embrittlement.
• Steven M. Yalisove, Professor; Ph.D., Pennsylvania, 1986. Thin-film materials, surface analytical and ion-beam techniques, surface and interface structures.

Correspondence and Information

University of Michigan
Graduate Program Office
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
College of Engineering
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2136
Telephone: 734-763-9790


University of Michigan
Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies
Mail Office
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109