|
|
Materials Science
Program Director: Dr. James K. Baird The Program The Materials Science graduate programs are strongly coupled with the Chemistry Master's program. Approximately 35 graduate students are currently enrolled in these programs with four to six students graduating each year from the Materials Science Master's program and two to three students graduating from the Materials Science Ph.D. Program. Over twenty faculty bring in three to five million dollars in external grants and contracts yearly with much of that spent in support of graduate students. Our facilities are housed in the recently constructed Materials Science Building. Our research thrust areas are in surface science and biotechnology. Some of our graduate students work in collaboration with scientists at the nearby Redstone Arsenal U.S. Army base or Marshall Space Flight Center. Others work in collaboration with local companies that include Shearwater Polymers, Research Genetics, and other high tech companies located in Cummings Research Park, which is the largest in the Southeast outside of North Carolina's Research Triangle. Students may be admitted to either the Materials Science M.S. program or the Ph.D. program. In the M.S. program most students elect to complete 24 hours of course work and write a Master's thesis. Others elect to complete 33 hours of course work and pass a comprehensive examination. For the Materials Science Ph.D. program, course work during the first year and a half is taken in preparation for the Program I Examination which consists of four sections - structure and materials analysis; condensed matter; thermodynamics and kinetics; and structure and materials processing. Subsequently a Program of Study developed with the student's research direction in mind is planned in collaboration with the student's dissertation supervisory committee. The Ph.D. degree requires 48 hours of course work, 18 semester hours of dissertation study, and passing the Program II Examination, which is prepared by the student's dissertation committee. Up to 24 hours of previous graduate course work may be transferred toward the 48 hours required upon approval of the program director, the student's committee, and the Graduate Dean according to the guidelines listed in the Graduate Catalog. The average time to graduate with a Master's degree is two years and four to five years for the doctorate. Our graduates are in demand in both the academic and industrial workplaces. The success of our graduates has endowed our faculty with a reputation of graduating students that are competent, creative and independent.
Our admissions standards follow those of the Graduate
School - a score of at least 1500 on the GRE examination, plus an undergraduate
Grade Point Average (GPA) of B or better (3.0 on a 4.0 scale), is required
for unconditional admission. Students with lower GRE scores or lower
GPAs may still be admitted conditionally, with approval of the Chair
and the Graduate Dean. Newly admitted students typically hold Graduate
Teaching Assistantships, which carry very competitive stipends and tuition
remission for a full graduate course load, and involve duties ranging
from teaching undergraduate laboratories to development of new course
materials/ demonstrations. By the second year of graduate study, most
students transfer to Graduate Research Assistantships, which can carry
higher stipends and involve work leading to the M.S. thesis or the Ph.D.
dissertation in Materials Science. |
 |
|