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 Materials
engineers manipulate the atomic and molecular structure of substances
to create products from computer chips and television screens to
golf clubs and snow skis. They work with metals, ceramics, plastics,
semiconductors, and combinations of materials called composites
to create new materials that meet mechanical, electrical, and chemical
requirements.
Materials engineering is basic to nearly all
other forms of engineering. Materials engineers find employment
in such organizations as Hewlett-Packard, Intel, IBM, 3M, Lockheed-Martin, Xerox, Motorola, Monsanto, and Corning. Past and
present CEOs of Intel are
materials scientists. Tech graduates also work at Los
Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia
National Laboratories. Materials engineers with master's
degrees can expect to start at salaries of around $55,000.
New Mexico Tech's education for materials engineers
is unique in the amount of hands-on research students get involved
in, even at the undergraduate level. Undergraduates often learn
to use one of our two scanning electron microscopes and may be
co-authors on research papers written with their professors.
 Three
of the department's professors have won New Mexico Tech's Distinguished
Teaching Award for the personal help they give their students – not
only in classwork but also in finding real-world research projects,
internships, summer jobs, and permanent work. Two have won the
campus's Distinguished
Research Award for their extensive research – all of
it conducted with students – and many published papers,
often written with students.
Photo Credits:
- Students create nanosized aluminina powder
and evaluate it in MATE 301 Intro to Ceramics Lab.
- A student using wire flame spray to put
a copper coating onto a polyurethane disc.
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