Careers in Materials Science and Engineering

Career opportunities in MSE are excellent. The materials sector includes industries involved with metallurgy (eg. steel, aluminium and copper producers); ceramics (cement, glass and refractories); polymers (plastics, fibres, paints, rubbers, adhesives) and composites (fibreglass). These materials are the feedstock of manufacturing and construction, so that the materials sector is vitally important to a vast number of industries: automobiles, aerospace, electronics, building construction and many more.

Furthermore, MSE is one of the most active applied research areas. Most governments recognise materials research as a “enabling” technology and provide billions of dollars in support of materials-based technologies. New companies and whole industries have been built from new discoveries in materials science and engineering. Silicon-based microprocessors and integrated circuits are an excellent example of how breakthroughs in materials processing technologies can generate enormous global business and creating thousands of jobs.

Opportunities exist in a wide range of career directions for materials graduates and prospects will get even better as new materials-based technologies generate new businesses. The big three research areas of energy production; bio-engineering and nano-technology all require breakthroughs in materials properties and processing. MSE professionals will be in high demand for the foreseeable future.

Graduates can look to the following areas for career opportunities: