Alfred University adds Ph.D. in materials science and engineering 1/10/03
Alfred University has received State Education Department approval to offer a fourth doctoral degree, this one a Ph.D.
in materials science and engineering. "We were pleased to get such prompt approval from Albany for our application to offer the Ph.D. in materials science and engineering," said Dr. David Szczerbacki, provost and vice president for academic and statutory affairs. "This new program is an affirmation of our commitment to materials science and, as such, rounds out our portfolio of doctoral programs. The fact that the program gained SED approval in record time is a testament to the excellent work done by the faculty and administration in the School of Ceramic Engineering and Materials Science."With the addition of the Ph.D. in materials science and engineering, Alfred University now has three doctoral degree programs in its School of Ceramic Engineering and Materials Science. The new program
augments the School's Ph.D. programs in ceramics and glass science. Alfred University also offers a Psy.D. program in school psychology."This new degree program is based on our traditional strengths in ceramics and glass, while
materials science programs at other institutions tended to grow out of metallurgy programs," said Dr. Alastair
Cormack, the Van Derck Frechette Professor of Ceramic Science and director of AU's Graduate School.The addition of the Ph.D. degree in materials science and engineering gives Alfred University a full complement of materials science-related degree programs, from baccalaureate to master's and Ph.D. "This will allow the MSE faculty we have recruited in recent years with expertise outside ceramics and glass, in polymers and metals, for example, to supervise doctoral research in their own fields," said Cormack. Additionally, the new program will allow graduate students in emerging fields, such as biomedical materials engineering and photonics, to earn a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering. "Those fields are inherently 'multi-material' in that they involve more than just ceramics or glass," said Cormack. He said it is likely that students currently enrolled either in existing Ph.D. programs or in master's degree programs will transfer into the new doctoral program, meaning that Alfred University could graduate its first students with a Ph.D. in materials science within a few semesters.In July 2000, the School of Ceramic Engineering and
Materials Science, which is one of two schools in the New York State College of Ceramics that Alfred University administers under a contract with the State University of New York, received a $285,000 grant from the SUNY to assist with start-up costs relating to the new Ph.D. program in materials science and engineering.At that time, Dean Ronald Gordon noted that nearly half of the faculty in the School of Ceramic Engineering and Materials Science held a doctoral degree in materials science, complementing the physicists, glass scientists, chemists and ceramic engineers who were already part of the School's interdisciplinary, specialized faculty.Alfred University is the only U.S.
institution to offer a Ph.D. in glass science, and only the third in the world to do so. Its undergraduate and graduate programs in ceramic engineering and glass science are internationally recognized.
