Established in 1953, the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) has a national key academic discipline of "Materials Science and Engineering", supported by the "211 Project" and the "985 Project", as well as discipline of prior development under the national "Double First-class Initiative".Aiming to be a "domestic front-runner with global impact", the School adopts the development strategy of "gathering talents, strengthening discipline, building platform, and achieving firstrate", and bridges different subjects of Engineering, Science and Medicine. It is dedicated to academic excellence in all aspects of materials and serves as an integral part of the university-wide effort towards becoming a leading domestic and world-class academic institution.

In the global ranking of academic subjects, the materials science discipline of HUST ranks 28th by US News, 24th by Essential Science Indicators (ESI) and 21th by Shanghai Ranking in 2021.

High Level Teams

At present, the School has one national teaching team "Materials Processing Engineering" (head: LI Dequn and ZHOU Huamin), two innovative research teams under the Ministry of Education of China, namely, "New Energy Materials and Components" (head: HUANG Yunhui) and "Advanced Processing Technology and Equipment" (head: SHI Yusheng), and five Hubei provincial innovative groups, namely, "Additive Manufacturing" (head: SHI Yusheng), "Nanometer Materials and Components" (head: XIE Changsheng), "Solid Oxide Fuel Cell" (Head: LI Jian), "Numerical Simulation" (Head: CHEN Liliang) and "Metal Plastic Forming" (Head: WANG Xinyun). 

Research Platforms

It possesses 2 research platforms at national level, namely the State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Die & Mould Technology, and National-Local Joint Engineering Laboratory of Digitized Materials Processing Technology and Equipment, and 10 research laboratories and centers at provincial or ministerial level, including Productivity Promotion Center for Rapid Prototyping Manufacturing of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Engineering Research Center for Additive Manufacturing Ceramic Materials of Ministry of Education, etc.

A long-term stable international cooperation has been established with global renowned academic institutes and companies through the three joint research platforms including the Sino-UK Joint Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Processing Technology, etc., and jointly undertaking the international cooperation research and development projects, such as the EU Framework Program 7 and Horizon 2020 projects. The School also vigorously strengthens the cooperation with the industry and promotes the commercialization and applications of research results through co-development of cooperation platforms with many well-known enterprises such as Wuhan Iron and Steel Group, Haier Group, etc.

Funds

From 2016 to 2020, the funds for research and development in the School basically showed an upward trend, especially from governmental sources. In 2020, the fund reached 141.7 million yuan. The academic level of the School and its impact has been rising rapidly. From 2016 to 2020, 2582 high-level Science Citation Index (SCI) papers were published, of which 80 papers were selected as ESI highly cited papers, and 6 professors were identified as highly cited researchers by Clarivate and Elsevier.

Awards

Through generations of unremitting efforts over the past 60 years, great achievements have been made in the School of Materials Science and Engineering. Many awards have been granted in recognition of research achievements including 1 National Award for Natural Science (2nd Tier), 3 National Invention Awards (2nd Tier), 6 National Awards for Scientific Progress (2nd Tier), 1 project listed in the "Top 10 Breakthroughs of Scientific and Technology in China", and more than 30 awards on the provincial or ministerial level. Over the recent 5 years, rapid development of this School has led to distinct strengths and characteristics in education, research, faculty, facilities, social service, and international exchange and cooperation, etc.