Graduate Studies
Chemical & Molecular Engineering
Facilities of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering Department
Research Activities
Since its inception, the MSCE Department has had a strong research component, with a recent emphasis on advanced materials, materials and processes for energy generation and storage, and sustainability. The Department has been successful in obtaining external funding for research and currently has the highest per capita faculty funding within the University. In 2022, the Department had faculty research expenditures totaling over $10.5M. Our department is home to many research centers including an EFRC on Energy Storage Technologies, the Center for Mesoscale Transport Properties, the Garcia Polymer Center, the Center for Thermal Spray Technologies and the Institute of Gas Innovation and Technology. These centers offer a unique and rich environment for interdisciplinary graduate research and education.
The proximity to Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and its advanced national facilities has been a major benefit to both faculty and students within the Department. Three of our faculty members hold joint appointments at BNL, while Brookhaven scientists participate in research and teaching within the Department. The DOE awarded the contract to manage BNL in 1998 to Brookhaven Science Associates, a consortium of other universities led by Stony Brook and the Battelle Memorial Institute. The University’s relationship with this premier research facility greatly enhances both the Department’s and Stony Brook’s research programs.
At BNL, the facilities available to the Department include particle accelerators for carrying out ion beam surface modification experiments and highly sophisticated surface analysis probes. The National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) is also located at BNL. As one of the participating research teams at NSLS, the Synchrotron Topography Research Group, centered in Stony Brook’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, is using special X-ray methods to image nondestructively dislocation microstructures. This enables image-detailed descriptions of dislocation motion and structures attendant to crystal growth and plastic deformation and fracture, as well as to interesting materials behaviors. The topographic method is also being used in department-based studies of surface chemical reactivity.
Our ties with industry are growing stronger: faculty members are working with industry on joint research projects and submitting cooperative proposals to outside agencies. The Materials Science Department has led the effort in joint industry-University projects within the College of Engineering through the New York State Strategic Partnership for Industrial Resurgence (SPIR) program. Both the Center for Thermal Spray Research and the Institute for Gas Innovation and Technology have several industrial partners.
Stony Brook’s own facilities include state-of-the-art low-energy electron diffraction LEED; a state-of-the-art scanning electron microscope and a transmission electron microscope, both equipped with analytical capabilities and the latest software for electron diffraction simulation and image processing; an atomic force microscope; and electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA) IAES/SIMS Infrared Microscopy units, as well as characterization facilities that include equipment for microanalysis and X-ray techniques.
Much of the research work has included collaborations with other universities, industries, national laboratories, and government facilities such as the Army Research Laboratory, Weapons and Materials Directorate (Aberdeen, MD). Our faculty having funding from a range of federal agencies including the NSF, DOE, Department of Defense and Department of Education.
A common theme in all our programs is that we integrate the research experience as part of our educational mission. As a result, we have a vibrant, active department in which undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty and staff work together to tackle grand challenges that require new materials and processes.
Consistent with Stony Brook’s designated mission as a research center, the cornerstone of the Department’s academic program is the graduate work leading to the research-oriented M.S. and Ph.D. degrees.