MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering

New DMSE research may make it possible to produce tiny spectrometers that are just as accurate and powerful as full-size bench-top instruments but could be mass produced using standard chip-making processes. READ MORE

What’s New

image of American Beaver, John J. Audobon

3.S06 Casting a Tradition

Tradition runs deep at MIT. From hacking to Pi Day, students welcome the opportunity to add their individual contribution to the line of collective tradition. In this special subject course, students will work to create an interactive metal sculpture that embraces another tradition at MIT, the “brass rat” class ring. This life-size, cast bronze beaver sculpture, complete with moveable tail and magnetic hair, will be entirely realized by MIT undergraduates within MIT laboratories. The course will provide a cross-disciplinary approach to sculpture that will include art history, metallurgy, and mechanical engineering. From schematic rendering to metal casting, fabrication, polishing and patination, (and the many steps in between), students in this class will learn through hands-on experience how a cast sculpture comes to fruition as well as how much applied materials science knowledge is involved in art-making.

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Priyanka Chaudhuri, Magdalena Rieb, Chris Schuh, Angelita Mireles at SoE Infinite Mile awards

Infinite Mile, 2019

We are thrilled to celebrate the accomplishments of Angelita Mireles, winner of the School of Engineering Ellen J. Mandigo Award for Sustained Excellence, and of Magdalena Rieb and Priyanka Chaudhuri, winners of the Infinite Mile Awards!

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Wulff Lecture: Prof. Frances M. Ross

Professor Ross and her group can watch crystals grow in the electron microscope by slowly adding atoms to a clean surface. The movies show kinetics and thermodynamics in action but are also entertaining, frustrating, or both at the same time. She shares the joy of this “in situ” microscopy as her group aims to understand how atoms assemble into nanowires or nanocrystals and uses the information to control the formation of more complex nanostructures.

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This week's events

Week of September 16: Tuesday: Materials Science and Engineering Seminar, Prof. Trisha Andrew. Thursday: SMSD Seminar, Prof. Shawn Chester.

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Spotlight

Magnified image of superconductor structure

Recent MIT faculty addition Prof. LeBeau receives PECASE

Professor Jim LeBeau joined our faculty on July 1. He was previously Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at North Carolina State University where his research focus was on developing new TEM and scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) techniques to determine the atomic structures of materials, thereby understanding ceramics, metals, and electronic materials in a way that we never have before. Professor LeBeau has a B.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic University and a Ph.D. from UCSB, both in materials science and engineering. He holds the John Chipman Career Development Chair. As part of the MIT.nano research community, Prof. LeBeau brings unique skills and experience in TEM and STEM techniques and instrumentation, which will enrich materials research at MIT immediately and for decades to come.

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Manufacturing

WGBH reports on AIM Photonics educational endeavors

MIT is stepping in to train technicians in the advanced manufacturing field of integrated photonics — installing light technology on chips. MIT's AIM Photonics, led by Prof. Kimerling, is one of 14 institutions across the country that were part of the Obama administration's initiative to develop new technologies and build the little-known industry's workforce. Now, they are helping students learn new skills that will lead to new jobs.

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