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You should consider studying materials science at Caltech
if you have an interest in the fundamentals of nature, with
a view towards engineering applications of new natural phenomena.
Many important scientific issues in materials are understood
poorly, and engineering applications are many years away.
However, it is often surprising how quickly a new scientific
insight can lead to new engineering. The technological importance
of the new metallic glasses and hydrogen or ion storage materials
developed at Caltech are such examples.
Nevertheless, at Caltech some of our most significant work
is at a fundamental level, such as the origin of entropy in
solid materials, the reasons why crystals become unstable and
transform to glasses, the origin of the superprotonic transition,
and how stress affects phase transformations in solids. The
graduate program in materials science at Caltech is therefore
rigorous, mathematical, and has a strong tilt towards either
solid state physics, chemistry, or solid mechanics. Undergraduate
backgrounds in these fields are often good preparation for
graduate study at Caltech.
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