Everything Americans use is composed of materials, from computer chips to flexible concrete skyscrapers, from plastic bags to artificial hips, from fiber optical cables to automobiles. Materials Science and Engineering makes these materials reliable and useful through design, processing, and analysis of controlled compositions, microstructures, and properties. Without new materials, the next generation of computers, automobiles, aircraft telecommunications, skyscrapers, and medical implants will not exist. Materials of the future will be smart and think on their own, in addition to meeting traditional property demands. This field abounds with scientific challenges and technological excitement.

Nuclear Engineering includes the design, development, and operation of nuclear power systems; numeric simulation of nuclear systems; health physics and radiation protection; radiation imaging; radiation measurements; national security and non-proliferation; nondestructive examination of materials and structures using radiation techniques; use of radiation in medicine for treatment and diagnostics; and using radiation in food processing, industrial processing, and manufacturing control.