The College of Materials Science and Engineering

The Materials Science and Engineering displine was established in 1960 when Beijing University of Technology (formerly known as Beijing Polytechnic University) was founded. In 1997, the College of Materials Science and Engineering was officially founded. It aims at “relying on Beijing, merging into Beijing, inspiring China, and orienting itself to the world”. The guiding ideology of the college is “connotation development, independent innovation, talent education, and resources coordination”, which coordinates the development of academic teams, disciplines plans, and research bases. It actively meets the needs from the capital’s economic development and urban construction, and also focuses on harmonious development of resources, energies, and environment, which ultimately forms the unique higher-education-running ideas based on the environmentally-friendly-preferred categories of professional training, scientific researches, and social services. The Environmental Materials Research Society, one of the Chinese Materials Research Society (C-MRS) subsidiaries, is affiliated to the college. In addition, deputy directors of the Chinese Materials Research Society, the Nonferrous Metals Society of China, and other materials-related societies are all affiliated to the college.

At present, the college possesses key disciplines in materials science at both national and Beijing municipal level, doctor degree and postdoctoral research stations of first-level discipline of materials science and engineering, and the key laboratory of Ministry of Education. Under the supports of “National 211 Project” and “Beijing Municipal Key Disciplines”, the college has creatively developed several symbolic platforms for scientific research, including the sole in-situ experimental facility for the vacuum cathodes in China, the most versatile underlying databases and evaluation system for life-cycle-analysis (LCA) of different materials, the largest spark-plasma-sintering (SPS) facility, and the nano-materials preparation facility. During the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period, advanced materials preparation process, properties testing, microstructure analysis, computer simulations, and other mutual-discipline platforms/engineering research bases were predominantly flourished under the idea of environmental friendly. Such initiatives promoted the integrated development of first-level discipline of materials science and engineering. In addition, synthesized strength of first-level discipline was formed and enhanced. Meanwhile the interdisciplinary subjects were actively developed, and corresponding research bases were jointly established, while the growth point of new interdisciplinary subjects was extended.

Currently, the college has 128 full-time teaching staff, including 2 academicians, 17 supervisors for Ph.D. students, 32 professors, 46 associate professors, and several domestic and international scholars as the guest professors. Guided by academician Professor Tie-Yong Zuo, an outstanding academic team whose principal members are young and middle-aged professors was established with the leadership of “Distinguished Young Scholars” and “Cheung Kong Scholars”. The development of the college was supported by several innovative teams from the National High-Tech Plan (863) of Ministry of Science and Technology, the Cheung Kong Scholars Program of Ministry of Education, Academic Human Resources Development in Institutions of Higher Learning under the Jurisdiction of Beijing Municipality, etc. At the same time, domestic and international academic exchanges and cooperation were created; several famous universities and research institutes have built a long term cooperation relationship with the college. A batch of such national-level scientific plans as 973 and 863, science and technology supporting plans, national defense plans, and research projects from Beijing municipality, etc., are being carried out in the college. In the past five years, one research project won the first prize from the State Technological Invention Award, two projects won the second prize from the National Technological Invention Award, and four projects were granted the first prize of provincial-level science and technology achievements, etc.

Since the foundation of the college, the educational mission has been dedicated to fostering the high-level graduates and undergraduates with solid background knowledge of materials science and engineering. Prevailing idea of training and educating the professional talents has been accomplished through the philosophy of “Broad Basis, Emphasized Characteristics”. Three-stage type of teaching system was formed which consisted of the core courses and major courses. A complete education system of cultivating undergraduate, Master, and Ph.D. students was provided by the college. Accordingly, substantial achievements on training and educating the professional talents have been obtained. Construction and reformation of the resource-conservation-and-environmentally-friendly-oriented materials disciplines were granted the second prize of National Education Achievement Awards and grand prize of Beijing Municipal Education Teaching Achievement Awards. Materials science and engineering disciplines for undergraduate students has become a national characteristic major. The teaching team of materials science and engineering was granted the national-level education team. In addition, the college has two Nation-level Excellent Courses, one National-level Bilingual Course, one A Hundred Chinese Excellent Doctoral Dissertations and one nominated award for this honor.