Research on Materials in the Department covers a wide range of material systems, applications and techniques. The common goal is to understand the fundamental properties of materials in order to facilitate the development of new materials and innovative techniques. The Department’s researchers produce cutting-edge work, both theoretical and experimental, covering a wide field of research in soft matter, biomaterials, semiconductors, optoelectronics and magnetic materials. Materials scientists and engineers are increasingly focused on controlling the atomic and mesoscopic structures to tune the properties of materials. This pursuit has pushed the Materials field to the forefront of the development and application of new tools and techniques for observing and manipulating matter at the very small scale.

Interdisciplinary research in the Department focuses on the following fields