Student in foundry wearing protective gear

UWM’s doctoral program in Engineering offers a concentration in Materials Science & Engineering. This flexible program allows you to develop a study plan tailored to meet your needs. Your plan will be evaluated based on its appropriateness as a materials engineering pursuit, course availability and the availability of a qualified College of Engineering & Applied Science faculty member to serve as your major professor.

Your chosen area of specialization will be the subject of your doctoral dissertation. When you graduate, you will have marked scholarship in the broad field of materials engineering as well as a distinguished critical or creative achievement in your chosen specialization.

Program Type

Doctoral

Program Format

On Campus

Request Information
Loading…

Career Outlook

A PhD is usually required for research and development positions. Graduates work within academia, industry, the government and for non-profits.

UWM’s graduates of this program have pursued careers with:

  • Advanced Ionics
  • GE Aviation
  • Kohler Company
  • Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  • Poclain Hydraulics
  • University of Central Florida.
Reed Heintzkill (left) and Filip Zemajtis, doctoral students in Konstantin Sobolev’s lab aim to turn theory into practice by creating a coating that consumers could spray on surfaces to both repel and deactivate virus-laden droplets.

What to Expect

Many courses are offered in the late afternoon or evening, so you will have the option of completing much of the program on a part-time basis.

Many students earn Teaching Assistantships (TAs), Research Assistantships (RAs) or Fellowships during their graduate study which helps to fund their education while also building leadership skills. Assistantships decisions are made by the academic departments only after an applicant has been accepted to the program.

More Information

Contact the College of Engineering & Applied Science Graduate Programs Office.

We’re a top tier R1 research university and our Materials Science & Engineering students have the opportunity to work with faculty members engaged in cutting-edge research in areas such as:

  • Materials for energy storage
  • Polymer solar cells
  • Adsorbents and membranes to remove water contaminants
  • Membranes for energy-efficient chemical separations
  • Manufacturing processes
  • Structural analysis of aerospace materials
  • Application of nanomaterials in construction
  • Self-healing metals and advanced metal-matrix composites.

View a full list of our college’s research labs, centers and institutes.

Faculty

Nidal Abu Zahra
  • Professor, Materials Science & Engineering
  • Department Chair, Materials Science & Engineering
Ben Church
  • Associate Professor, Materials Science & Engineering Department
  • Director, Advanced Analysis Facility
Nikolai Kouklin
  • Professor, Materials Science and Engineering
faculty member xiaoli ma
  • Lawrence E. Sivak '71 Faculty Fellowship
  • Associate Professor, Materials Science and Engineering
William Musinski
  • Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering
Junjie Niu 2024
  • Richard and Joanne Grigg Professor
  • Professor, Materials Science and Engineering
  • Affiliate Professor, School of Freshwater Sciences
Pradeep Rohatgi
  • Distinguished Professor, Materials Science and Engineering Department
  • Distinguished Professor, Biomedical Engineering
  • Distinguished Professor, Mechanical Engineering
  • Director, Center for Advanced Manufacture of Materials

Advising

Therese Crary
  • Advisor, Graduate Programs
  • Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Biomedical Health Informatics
Bob Packard
  • Advisor, Graduate Programs
  • Civil/Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Industrial/Manufacturing Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering
Contact
Materials Science & Engineering
Contact Info: ceas-materials@uwm.edu

Street Address
College of Engineering & Applied Science
3200 North Cramer Street
Milwaukee, WI 53211

Mailing Address
College of Engineering & Applied Science
P.O. Box 784
Milwaukee, WI 53201-0784