Hey everyone, I’m graduating in December 2026 with a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering and a minor in Nanotechnology.

I finished up an internship at a hardware company and actually ended up getting a full-time offer. At the time, I rejected it because of the location, but with the market being what it is right now, I’m kind of regretting that decision. I’m currently back on the job hunt for entry-level and feeling a bit lost on the best places to apply. A few quick questions for the community:

Where are you all finding/applying for roles? Beyond standard LinkedIn/Indeed, are there specific job boards, industry hubs, or recruiting channels that have worked best for MSE grads?

I am Open to hardware, semiconductors, process engineering, or lab/R&D roles.

Here’s my current resume. Please tear it apart, and any advice would be hugely appreciated!

The interaction that slows electrons inside a copper-oxide material may also help them move without electrical resistance. High-field experiments have linked fluctuating magnetic moments to electron pairing in an electron-doped superconductor. The finding identifies a key mechanism while leaving the highest-temperature members of the copper-oxide family unexplained.

An international team led by University of Bristol physicists reported the work in Nature Physics. The researchers studied lanthanum cerium copper oxide, a material whose properties change as extra electrons enter its structure. Their measurements connected the strength of a magnetic interaction with the temperature at which superconductivity begins.

Superconductivity allows electrical current to flow without resistance below a material’s critical temperature, known as Tc. The phenomenon supports powerful magnets in medical scanners and exceptionally sensitive measuring devices. It also offers possibilities for electricity transport with lower energy losses, although cooling requirements remain an important practical constraint.

Hello !

I am a french student and I'm in a current student of an undergraduation about materials science and engineering and I wanna know which industry give the best salary ? I wanna do some biomaterials but some people said that it isn't a good idea, can I have your opinion please

So I'm a freshman at a somewhat big uni in India pursuing my BE in Mechanical engineering, I was initially into going towards core-mechanical engineering but I started getting interest in materials, I want to make sure I develop my knowledge in material science/Material engineering. I know it's too early to decide but I really want to take this path. And Idk if I'm going to opt for masters yet. If I do,will It be fine for a BE mechE graduate to take material science and engineering as my masters major?

Im in my last year of highschool (Canada) and I think materials science is really cool. I like chemistry but I find the stuff materials scientists work on is way cooler than like pharma and it seems to pay a bit better than straight chem. But I have literally no idea if I should apply to science or applied science when doing applications. Is there a difference, do they end up in the same place, does it change your career path, how does it work?

Hello, I wasn’t sure how to word this question but…

Im a senior in HS applying to major in materials science and engineering.

I am wondering where I could end up working when Im straight out of undergrad; what industries would be most looking to hire new-grads right now/5yrs from now? what industries always have room? what was your first job when you graduated?

All insight is appreciated; I originally thought working with textiles would be really cool but I assume jobs are pretty limited now with manufacturing being outsourced

Graphene has attracted attention for its potential to improve material properties, but translating those properties into practical applications involves several challenges. Producing consistent-quality graphene is one step; ensuring it performs as expected when added to another material is another.

Dispersion and formulation seem particularly important because the results can depend on the host material and the application. Even if graphene offers useful properties, the performance improvement still needs to justify the added cost for manufacturers.

For those working with advanced materials, which factor do you think has the greatest influence on adoption: consistent production, effective dispersion, or demonstrating a measurable improvement in the final material?

Hey all

Not sure if this is the right subreddit, but hoping someone might be able to point me in the right direction! I'm looking for a putty that's electrically conductive, radiolucent, and doesn't dry out over time, so it can be reused multiple times.

Ideally, it would have a similar consistency to playdoh can hold its shape, and be able to complete an electrical circuit.

I've been searching for a while now and haven't had much luck finding something that ticks all the boxes.

Does anyone know of a material or product that might work? Open to any suggestions!

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone,

I’m a materials scientist with a background in polymer fracture mechanics, and I’ve been developing ScienceTabz, a desktop application for scientific plotting and data analysis.

I’m looking for people willing to try it with their own data and give honest feedback on how it fits their everyday work. Any materials-related workflow is welcome: mechanical testing, thermal analysis, spectroscopy, or simply plotting and comparing measurements.

The attached FTIR video is just an example of what the application can do, including analysis, plot styling, annotations, and assembling multiple plots into a figure. It uses synthetic demonstration data. You don’t need to work with FTIR to participate.

I’d particularly appreciate hearing:

• Is it straightforward to import your data and get started?
• Can you complete a task you would normally do in your current software?
• What feels confusing, takes too many steps, or is missing?

There’s no need to run a complex analysis. Trying it with one dataset or making a figure you need for your work would already be valuable.

For transparency: I’m the developer, and ScienceTabz is commercial software with a free trial. I’m happy to extend the trial for people who test it and provide feedback. It’s currently available for Windows and Linux.

If you’re interested: https://sciencetabz.com

Feel free to comment with the kind of data you work with or a task you’d like to try.

Hi everyone!

I'm a mechanical engineering student working on a semester project about all-solid-state batteries, specifically the mechanical behaviour of cracks associated with lithium dendrite penetration in garnet-type solid electrolytes.

I'm looking for feedback from people with experience in fracture mechanics, finite-element modelling, solid electrolytes, or computational materials science. I'd appreciate honest criticism, especially if my idea is poorly scoped or if there's a simpler, more defensible approach.

Background and the problem

My professor pointed out that the general idea of deflecting dendrite-associated cracks using engineered defects has already been investigated. They asked me to compare my proposal with existing work and explain what my study would actually contribute.

One particularly relevant paper is:

• Zhang et al., Mechanically driven Li dendrite penetration in garnet solid electrolyte, Nature (2026): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10415-9

My understanding is that the paper investigates mechanically driven lithium-dendrite penetration and reports that defect geometry can influence the propagation path. I still need to examine the supplementary information carefully before concluding whether my proposed parameter study has already been done.

My proposed project

Rather than claiming that void-induced crack deflection is a new discovery, I am considering a small, comparative 2D mechanical simulation in COMSOL.

The tentative research question is:

In a 20 µm-thick garnet electrolyte film, how does the depth of a buried, transverse flat void affect the stress field and the potential crack-deflection tendency, compared with a reference configuration and a circular void?

My initial plan is:

• Case A: no void — reference configuration.
• Case B: circular void.
• Case C: transverse, flat void at three different positions through the film.

The preliminary geometry uses a 5 µm surface-connected crack, a 5 µm-long void and a 0.5 µm void thickness. These are starting assumptions, not validated optimal dimensions.

For the first stage, I was planning to use 2D plane strain and linear elasticity, with provisional values of (E = 150) GPa and (\nu = 0.25). I was also considering a crack-face pressure of 150 MPa, with 600 MPa as a possible sensitivity case. I understand that crack-face pressure, external stack pressure, and hydrostatic stress in confined lithium are different quantities, so I need to justify the loading conditions carefully.

The initial outputs would be stress distributions around the crack tip and void, followed—if feasible—by fracture-mechanics quantities such as stress-intensity factors or a suitable crack-kink criterion.

I would not claim that a static elastic model proves actual dendrite deflection or prevents battery short circuits.

Questions I'd appreciate help with

1. Prior art: Has the effect of the position or depth of a transverse void on crack deflection in a thin garnet electrolyte already been studied? Which search terms, papers, or supplementary materials should I investigate?
2. Research contribution: If the general mechanism is already known, would a carefully defined parametric comparison of void position and shape be a reasonable student project? Or is there a more useful and manageable research question?
3. Model geometry: Is a 2D plane-strain model a reasonable starting point for a 20 µm garnet film with a surface-connected crack, or are there important limitations I should address first?
4. Fracture mechanics: Would you recommend starting with linear-elastic stress analysis and then extracting (K_I), (K_{II}), or the J-integral? Is there a suitable criterion for estimating the initial crack-kink direction in this situation?
5. Loading and material properties: Are the proposed pressure scenarios and provisional material properties defensible starting assumptions? What should I verify before using them?
6. Numerical reliability: What would be the minimum sensible mesh-convergence and boundary-sensitivity checks for a student-level model like this?
7. Scope: If you were supervising this project, what would you keep in the core deliverable, and what would you leave as an extension?

Another potentially relevant paper is Garnet-Based Solid-State Li Batteries with High-Surface-Area Porous LLZO Membranes (ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2024): https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.3c14422

I understand that porous membranes designed to improve interfacial contact are not necessarily equivalent to engineered transverse voids intended to alter crack propagation, but I would appreciate suggestions for other relevant comparisons.

Thanks in advance! I'm especially interested in constructive criticism, useful references, and advice on how to make the project more rigorous without making it too ambitious for a semester.

Total first world problem btw but basically Im planning on pursuing MatSE directly into undergrad, and only two schools in my state have that major. They are both good schools but, unfortunately one of them is highly competitive even as a state flagship for engineering (I was an okay student for most of highschool) and the other is less competitive but it’s a majority commuter school and way too close to home, which is not what I’m looking for

I’m not entirely sure about my chances at other out of state schools (almost all are public so I know I have out of state disadvantage) but maybe this is just my low self-confidence showing itself again. Is it worth even pursuing out-of-state for both admissions and costs or should I look at other options? What would you guys recommend?

Hey all

Not sure if this is the right subreddit, but hoping someone might be able to point me in the right direction! I'm looking for a putty that's electrically conductive, radiolucent, and doesn't dry out over time, so it can be reused multiple times.

Ideally, it would have a similar consistency to playdoh can hold its shape, and be able to complete an electrical circuit.

I've been searching for a while now and haven't had much luck finding something that ticks all the boxes.

Does anyone know of a material or product that might work? Open to any suggestions!

Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone!

I’m looking for solid textbook recommendations on rolling mill theory and metal forming processes.

Could you please recommend the best titles and authors on this topic? Also, what are the best sites or digital archives to search for technical books like these?

Thanks!

Literal shower thought, and its been a while since I took intro to Material Science, so might have forgotten why. But the elastic regime where crystalline materials behave "like a spring" is linear, stress = K×strain, i.e. F=K×(x-x_0)

The equation for a spring however is quadratic, F=K*DELTAx², i.e. F=K×(x-x_0)²

Is the diffrence in powers an engineering approximation because the elastic regime typically ends long before DELTAx becomes comparable to x_0? Or am I forgetting a minute detail?

My favourite image I generated during my PhD… a backscatter SEM image of steel powder spatter from the laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing/3D printing process… which looks like a little spooky pig!

I Have to choose three majors courses in my masters, 1) batteries
, 2) energy materials 3) modelling and simulation, i am already working in a reserach centre where i have experience on magnesium alloys and sample prep and deformations, now i am conflicted in which to choose, i searched abt which focus to take ai recommends simulation, but i am not sure, would be grateful to hear your opinions, ik i have to choose which feels better for me, but i am honestly stuck at this point

I'm trying to make a high entropy oxide containing lithium and sodium along with three other constituent elements. I do a co-precipitation and then calcine at 1000 °C, 6 hours. However, when i do the ICP-MS after calcination, the amount of Li is 1.7 ppb and Na is 5.8 ppb. Other elements have the amount in the range of 500-550 ppb.

I've tried using various wet chemical methods like sol gel, pechini etc, but every time I calcine, the amount of lithium and sodium reduces. I've also tried ball milling, but the calcination step reduces the amount of Li, Na. I'm using a zirconia crucible and covering it with a lid. Ive also tried putting excess Li, Na in the precursor but still it doesn't work.

Is there any method for my calcination or something else i can do to ensure my lithium and sodium don't disappear.

I am applying for a materials engineering position within the company I currently work at. I do not have a degree, but I do come with 15+ years expirence in the field. Are there any book recommendations that could help me further my knowledge? Or anything that could help out. Thanks!

Cast iron and carbon steel cookware involves seasoning (polymerized oil) that develops and also breaks down (from acids) from cooking. What are you actually consuming when the seasoning strips down? It's not just a dose iron (that can potentially be healthy) that contributes to the metallic taste, right? If the pan was cleaned to the point of the cooking surface feeling smooth (polymerized oil surface), are you still consuming carbon build up that will impact health negatively?

Even if what is being consumed is still inert, that doesn't necessarily mean you want to ingest it if it can build up in your body over time and potentially be a health issue?

Coming from the perspective of trying to be more health conscious where possible, not e.g. "you'll be fine and not die from using cast iron cookware because it's been used for thousands of years and we are all okay, there are microplastics inside us already". There's reasons to use cookware of such materials regardless of health and some people are willing to make this trade-off, of course.