chanical properties, and materials pro- Recherche en IA spécialisée au MIT

chanical properties, and materials pro-
cessing were also found in a wide range
of university departments.

During the following ten to ½fteen
années, many universities initiated educa-
tional programs in materials science and
engineering. Dans 1955, par exemple, le
metallurgy department at Northwestern
University broadened its coverage to in-
clude several sub½elds of materials sci-
ence and engineering–polymers, met-
als, electronic materials, and ceramics.
The university’s board of trustees
changed the name of the department
to materials science in January of 1959.
Some time earlier the concept of a uni-
½ed materials course based on principles
that applied to a broad range of materi-
als, rather than on the cataloging of
materials and their properties, began
to take form.

It has long been recognized that inter-
disciplinarity is at the core of materials
science. In his Ten Books on Architecture
more than two thousand years ago, Vit-
ruvius cited wood, steel, bronze, rope,
and stone as the materia that constitute
machines. In recent times, electrical en-
gineers, ceramists, physicists, and chem-
ists worked together at Arthur Von Hip-
pel’s laboratory for insulator research at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technolo-
gy, one of the ½rst interdisciplinary ma-
terials science laboratories at a universi-
ty. During World War II at the Metallur-
gical Laboratory at the University of
Chicago, researchers from almost every
branch of the physical sciences and engi-
neering collaborated on designing and
building nuclear reactors. The develop-
ment of the transistor at the Bell Tele-
phone Laboratories was achieved
through a collaboration of researchers
in many materials sub½elds.

After World War II, the engineering
sciences became an increasingly large
component of engineering education.
The U.S. government and many indus-

Morris E. Fine

& Peter W. Voorhees

on the evolving
curriculum in materials
science & engineering

Dans 1950, materials science and engineer-
ing did not exist as a university depart-
ment. Plutôt, there were separate de-
partments for metallurgical engineering
and ceramic engineering. Polymers were
taught in chemistry and chemical engi-
neering departments. Solid-state physics
was a well-established branch of phys-
ics, but introductory solid-state physics
was taught in metallurgy departments.
Speci½c areas of electronic materials
were taught in many different depart-
ments. Subjects such as corrosion, me-

Morris E. Fine is Walter P. Murphy and Techno-
logical Institute Professor Emeritus of Materials
Science and Engineering in Service and Member
of the Graduate Faculty at Northwestern Univer-
ville, where he was chair of the ½rst materials sci-
ence department at a university. He has been a
Fellow of the American Academy since 2003.

Peter W. Voorhees is Frank C. Engelhart Professor
of Materials Science and Engineering and chair
of the department of materials science and engi-
neering at Northwestern University.

134

Dædalus Spring 2005

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trial companies put pressure on the uni-
versities to provide a broader education
in materials, fundamental for developing
new products and improving existing
ones. Dans 1952, the American Society of
Engineering Education appointed the
Committee on Evaluation of Engineer-
ing Education. The committee’s report
recommended thirty-six semester hours
of engineering sciences in the curricu-
lum. It listed engineering materials as
well as physical metallurgy as engineer-
ing sciences. Dans 1956, the ½rst report of
the Atomic Energy Commission’s Metal-
lurgy and Materials Branch recommend-
ed new buildings and facilities for educa-
tion and research in materials. The Of-
½ce of Naval Research’s Solid States Sci-
ences Advisory Panel issued a report on
the opportunities for solid-state sciences
research after examining the U.S. Navy’s
materials problems. A study by the Na-
tional Academy of Sciences chaired by J.
Herbert Hollomon (who had assembled
a materials department at the ge Re-
search Laboratory) recommended the
creation of a national materials laborato-
ry. These and other considerations such
as Sputnik led the Advanced Research
Projects Agency of the Department of
Defense to issue an invitation to all ma-
jor universities in the United States to
submit pre-proposals for funding to es-
tablish interdisciplinary materials re-
search laboratories, with education of
doctoral students to be a major compo-
nent. The program still exists and is
sponsored by the National Science
Fondation.

The emergence of materials science
and engineering as an academic disci-
pline was a logical pedagogical develop-
ment. The ability to incorporate such a
wide range of materials into a single cur-
riculum stems from the focus of materi-
als science: the study of the relation-
ships among processing, structure, et
properties of materials. This paradigm

provides the intellectual framework for
choosing the scienti½c base and experi-
mental methods that are discussed in the
curricula. It is more ef½cient to teach ba-
sic information in solid-state physics,
thermodynamics, kinetics, molecular
and crystalline structure, mechanical
properties, etc.. for all materials than to
teach these subjects separately for each
class of materials.

Biological materials are now being in-

tegrated into the materials science and
engineering curricula at many universi-
liens. Bien sûr, wood and cellulose prod-
ucts have been among man’s most im-
portant materials from the beginning of
civilization, but the current major push
has come from the biomedical ½eld. Le
resurgence of interest in biomaterials
since the 1970s is largely a result of the
revolution that has taken place in molec-
ular biology. Given the exquisite molec-
ular control afforded by the techniques
that have been developed by molecular
biologists and biochemists, it is now
possible to control the biological re-
sponse of materials and to use biological
routes to create new materials. Incorpo-
rating such approaches into materials
curricula will require broadening the
scope of the basic courses to include
molecular biology and biochemistry.

Nerves carry electrical impulses from
one region of the body to another, a sub-
ject that could be taught in a course on
electronic materials. De la même manière, the basics
of molecular biology can be developed
under the rubric of a course on soft or
biological materials. By keeping the
focus on the processing-structure-prop-
erties-performance paradigm of materi-
als science, folding this new area into
existing materials science curricula will
be straightforward. Subjects such as X-
ray diffraction and electron microscopy
and diffraction currently include biolog-
ical materials.

The evolving
curriculum
in materials
science &
engineering

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Dædalus Spring 2005

135

Note by
Morris E.
Fine &
Peter W.
Voorhees

Bien sûr, the discovery of the double

helix was based on X-ray diffraction
observations, and electron microscopy
has long been a tool of the biological
scientist. The theories of the bonding
between atoms and how atoms are ar-
ranged in a material are general to all
materials. Self-assembly is a phase trans-
formation and must follow the same
thermodynamic and kinetic principles
as solidi½cation, crystallization, and pre-
cipitation. Bones require a set of me-
chanical properties not too dissimilar
from those required of other structural
materials. Functionalized molecular
scaffolds are used to promote the growth
of a wide range of tissues. Le processus-
ing-structure-properties-performance
paradigm of materials science and engi-
neering is illustrated by the strong rela-
tionship between the structure of the
molecular scaffolds and the ability of
these scaffolds to promote cell growth.

The materials science and engineering

curriculum has evolved considerably
over the past ½fty years. Biological ma-
terials will be the next major addition
to the curriculum. The result will be a
broader and yet more intellectually vi-
brant ½eld of study.

136

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