Brief Introduction

The School of Materials Science and Engineering has its origins in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Department of Mining Engineering within the former Northwest Institute of Engineering, established in 1938. After more than half a century’s development, the School’s five fields of research -- including heat treatment of metals, forging, casting, welding and non-metallic materials -- has gradually shifted to an educational and discipline development system supported by “three Departments, two Special Zones and three Research Centers”.

Three Departments:

Materials Science and Engineering;

Materials Forming and Control Engineering;

Composite Materials.

Two Talent Zones:

Center for Nano Energy Materials;

Center for Advanced Materials of Friction and Lubrication.

Three Research Centers:

Research Center of Nuclear Materials;

Research Center of Materials Genome;

Research Center of Materials Analysis and Testing.

The School has a national key discipline -- “Materials Science and Engineering” -- and two national key sub-disciplines -- “Materials Science” and “Materials Processing Engineering”. The School offers two first-level Doctoral Degrees – in Materials Science and Engineering and in Optical Engineering. The School of Materials Science and Engineering also has an excellent postdoctoral research station of Materials Science and Engineering. In 2012, its “Materials Science and Engineering” discipline was ranked third in the nation for China.

Distinctive Characteristics

Insisting on the frontier of materials science, the School serves for the national major strategic needs and economic and social development. Its distinguishing characteristics is its research in advanced aerospace materials including the preparation and formation, forming a system of discipline development supported with four departments and three research centers, including Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Department of Materials Forming and Control Engineering, Department of Composite Materials, Multidiscipline Material Frontiers Research Center (Department), Department of Materials Physical Chemistry, Research Center for Nano Energy Materials, Research Center for Advanced Lubrication and Sealing Material, and International Center for Materials Discovery. In recent years, the School has vigorously supported emerging disciplines, cooperating with national organizations to establish four local institutes in Taicang, Chongqing, and Qingdao.

Education and Scientific Research Platforms

The SMSE has 10 national national-level platforms and 17 provincial -level platforms for scientific research and talent development. For the last five years, the School has undertaken 149 National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) projects, amount to 103 million RMB; as well as more than 200 National Science and Technology Major Projects, Key Projects of Research and Development Plans, Project 863, National Defense Basic Scientific Research, Aviation Fund, etc. , amounting to 521 million RMB. The research fund for per person is over 2 million RMB. 1 received the National Natural Science Reword, and 4 received Technological Invention Reward. Faculty members have published 1930 SCI academic papers and have been granted 223 patents.

School Faculty

Currently, the School has 270 faculty and staff members, of whom there are 2 academicians in the Chinese Academy of Science, 3 academicians in the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 6 Yangtze River Scholars, 7 winners of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars. The School has several high-level research and educational groups, such as the National Natural Science Foundation Innovation Group, the Yangtze River Scholars Innovation Team, the Shaanxi Provincial Innovation Scientific Research Team, Shaanxi Provincial Innovative Education Team, etc,.

Talent Development

 In 2019, the School has more than 2800 students including 1096 undergraduate students, 964 master students, and 776 PhD students. Insisting on the goal of cultivating high-quality talents with solid foundation of natural science, material science and engineering, humanities and social sciences, strong innovative quality, international vision and communication and management ability, the School has delivered tens of thousands of excellent graduates for the development of national defense science and technology and the construction of national economy, including 9 academicians of the two academies, 17 scholars of the Yangtze River and recipients of the National Outstanding Youth Science Fund, as well as many industry leaders. The School has become a talent development and science research base in the area of materials science.

International Collaboration

With a sound international collaboration and talent recruitment system based in Europe, expanding to North America, Asia and Africa, the School of Material Sciences has strong collaborative research ties with a number of universities, institutions and industries in the United Kingdom, France, the United States, Germany, Australia, Spain, Russia, Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland, etc. Joint laboratories and research-sharing platforms have been established in joint efforts with all these universities and institutions. The School has already signed a number of collaborative agreements for undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Every year, around 100 foreign experts are invited to give presentations or launch joint research. Every year, there are about 120 faculty members going abroad for exchange or joint research. 160 students are sent abroad for exchange or degree study. So far, the School has appointed 18 experts from around the world as adjunct professors.