Material Science broadly encompasses the fundamental study of solid matter with the goal of engineering new materials with superior properties, and ultimately enabling altogether new types of devices. Historically, materials science focussed on metallurgical and ceramic systems, and the state of technological achievement of ancient (European) societies has been described in terms of materials – the stone age, the bronze age and the iron age. In the modern era, Material Science makes use of advanced fabrication and characterization tools that allow us to observe and manipulate matter virtually atom by atom. The field is inherently interdisciplinary, with strong connections to physics, chemistry, biology and the engineering fields. Materials scientists tackle such problems as the discovery of efficient electrolytes and electrodes for batteries and fuel cells (for sustainable energy), the design of nanoscale structures that can use light for communication (photonics), and the fabrication of high strength metals free of traditional failure modes (bulk metallic glass). In each case, tackling such problems requires fundamental thermodynamic and kinetic insights to answer the question: why do materials behave the way they do?