In 2010, the department renamed itself to “Materials Science and Engineering” from “Materials and Metallurgical Engineering. This name change brought parity with the rest of the world in terms of the philosophy of including a wide domain of materials related activities beyond traditional areas, primarily limited to metals. The names change was also vital to reflect the growing diversity of industry in the nation. The effort was not merely limited to the name change, the department also tool radical steps to overhaul its undergraduate and post graduate curriculum which now is a nice blend of traditional concepts and state of the art subjects and areas. Currently, the department offers teaching and research programmes in physical metallurgy, extractive metallurgy, mechanical metallurgy, powder metallurgy, materials degradation, ceramics, biomaterials, electronic, magnetic and optical materials, and energy materials. The Materials Science and Engineering department is a young and vibrant one with half of its faculty being below the age of forty years. The department has fostered a culture of collaboration between the faculty within as well as across the departments.

MSE at IITK houses most of modern facilities that are required for state of the art research. The department has common characterization equipment such as high resolution X-ray diffractometers, scanning and transmission electron microscopes, atomic force microscopes, Raman spectroscopy, Nanoindenter, Dynamic mechanical analyzer and various mechanical and electrical testing facilities, to name a few. In addition, IITK also has Advanced Center for Materials Science (ACMS) which not only has typical diffraction and microscopy facilities, it also houses analytical equipment such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Auger Spectroscopy, Confocal Microscope, SQUID and VSM, Electrical characterization setups for semiconducting and dielectric materials, Optical profilometer, Instrumented microindenter, Nanoindenter, BET for surface area measurements, Live Cell Imaging facility etc. The department has various processing facilities for traditional metal processing, ceramics and polymer processing, and thin films and device fabrication. The department also has a common clean room of Class 1000 housing lithographic and patterning facilities along with clean benches and fume hoods.

In its endeavour to continue to excel, MSE department seeks bright and enthusiastic faculty in all areas related to Materials Science and Engineering. We expect our faculty to teach both undergraduate and graduate students, supervise graduate students and engage in high quality research. The faculty members are also expected to disseminate their research output in the form of quality publications and/or demonstrate technological prowess in areas of relevance to the society. A faculty member typically sustains his/her research activities through external government or private funding. The department offers all the necessary infrastructure to enable a new faculty start his/her research activities quickly. The institute also provides a generous initiation grant of up to Rs. 25 Lakhs which can be enhanced on a case-to-case basis.

The IITK campus is fully residential, built on 1200 acres of land, offering large open areas full of flora (more than hundred varieties of trees and fruit orchards) and fauna (peacocks and more than 100 variety of birds as well as other animals). Features such as walking/cycling distance of workplace from home, excellent safety, close knit and self-contained community living, recreational amenities (sports and cultural), medical facility, schooling within safe environs of the campus, completely wifi enabled campus, 24/7 electricity and water availability and generous housing in comparison to other places in India make it an excellent place for living. The close knit community living also provide a very active and vibrant social life. In addition, Kanpur is well connected by train and air to most destinations in India. The city also offers excellent schooling opportunities for children.