Materials Science Research

Materials Science focuses on a fundamental understanding of the different types of materials and the interrelationship between processing, structure, and materials properties. Research areas include biomaterials, ceramics, metals, polymers, composites, electronic materials, energy materials, and thin films.

Brown University’s Materials Science program provides a framework for the discovery and exploitation of the new materials that will enable the transformative technologies that are required to meet current critical challenges in areas such as energy, infrastructure, and security.  Materials science and engineering is concerned with the development of materials with new properties and improved performance through an understanding of the relationships between processing, the atomic-scale mechanisms that build specific microstructures, and how these new and modified materials achieve specific performance goals. In short, materials science dictates the pace of innovation.

The materials research program at Brown is vibrant with faculty in the materials group contributing to, or leading, programs in mechanical behavior of materials, electronic materials and processing, bio-materials and more. State-of-the-art facilities in materials processing and characterization combined with a highly collaborative research culture are among the strengths of our materials research group.

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