Dartmouth College

The study of Materials Science and Engineering relates the properties of materials –chemical electrical, magnetic, mechanical, optical—to their internal architecture or microstructure. In turn, structure is related to processing—solidification, thermal/mechanical treatment, vapor deposition and so forth—and to the underlying thermodynamic "driving forces" and kinetics that underlie changes in structure and hence in properties and behavior. Fundamental to the study are both qualitative and quantitative methods of microstructural analysis.

The departments of Chemistry, Physics, and Engineering Sciences offer the minor in Materials Science, which can be combined with majors in any of the three areas. The minor requires prerequisites in chemistry and physics and consists of coursework in materials science, methods of experimental physics, methods of materials characterization, and electives from three different topic areas within the discipline.