About

UT campus aerial view

The Texas Materials Institute at the University of Texas at Austin was established in 1998 to ensure that UT-Austin achieves excellence in graduate education and research in the broad field of materials. The role of TMI is to be a “virtual” department that guides the destiny of materials science and engineering on the UT campus without imposing the limitations or boundaries inherent to departmental structures.

Primary Missions:

  1. To operate the graduate degree program in Materials Science and Engineering (MS&E). TMI recruits graduate students for this program, ensures appropriate coursework is available to educated and train scientists and engineers in the fundamentals of the field, provides research opportunities for these graduate students, and handles all associated administrative needs.
  2. To provide faculty and students on the UT-Austin campus with the instrumentation and associated infrastructure needed to conduct modern materials research. For more information on the equipment, please visit the instrumentation page.
  3. To promote interdisciplinary research in the area of materials at UT-Austin and to help coordinate all aspects of materials research and education among the participating departments.
  4. To serve as the Organized Research Unit for materials research and to provide the necessary infrastructure for those faculty who need these services.

Materials Science and Engineering Program

TMI houses the Materials Science and Engineering Graduate Program and Undergraduate Minor. The MS&E Graduate Program consistently is highly ranked by the U.S. News and World Report. Our students are typically offered excellent funding, and upon graduation usually receive highly competitive jobs within industry, research labs, and academia.  

Facilities

With over 10,000 square feet of laboratory space, TMI houses more than 65 pieces of large research equipment, which are a vital part of TMI's mission for providing instrumentation and infrastructure needed for materials science research. Our state-of-the-art facilities are supported by Ph.D. level facility managers, who maintain and operate the equipment, as well as train and assist users on every level of research involving the facilities.  

People

TMI has over 100 affiliated faculty members. The faculty all have appointments in a home department predominately in either the Cockrell School of Engineering or the College of Natural Sciences, but with some faculty from the Jackson School of Geosciences and the College of Pharmacy. Our faculty hold numerous patents and many are highly cited researchers, who are at the forefront of cutting-edge materials science education and research.

Life in Austin

Austin has been listed as one of the best places in America to live by U.S. News and World Report. It is an active city with lots of culture, live music, and outdoor recreations with year-round sunny weather. Austin has a thriving economy and serves as a major tech industry hub, where many major companies have campuses, such as Dell, National Instruments, Apple, IBM, Samsung, Google, and many others. Learn more.