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About Us

The School

School of Materials Science and Engineering (hereinafter called SMSE), with a history dating back to the 1950s, is developed from the traditional advantage majors in South China Institute of Technology (predecessor of SCUT).

After decades of development, SMSE is now composed of several parts: 6 Departments, 5 Institutes, 1 State Key Laboratory (State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices), 1 National Engineering Research Center (National Engineering Research Center for Tissue Restoration and Reconstruction), 25 Ministerial- and Provincial-Level International Collaborated Laboratories/Key Laboratories/Engineering Laboratories/Technical Research Centers, 1 National Demonstration Center for Experiment Teaching (Experiment Teaching Center for Materials Science and Engineering) and 1 National Virtual Simulation Experiment Teaching Center for Luminescent Materials and Devices.

We have 2 doctoral programs of first-level disciplines: Materials Science and Engineering (national key discipline) and Biomedical Engineering. In 2017, the Materials discipline of SCUT was selected into the national “Double First-Class” discipline construction list. It has 2 first-class national-level undergraduate majors in Materials Science and Engineering and Polymer Materials and Engineering, a first-level doctoral degree, 2 post-doctoral mobile stations, and a doctoral program in materials and chemical engineering. In 2022, the Materials discipline of SCUT globally ranks the top 1000 in ESI disciplines (top 0.242‰).

The School has a strong faculty with 200 full-time teachers. Among them, there are 107 professors, 6 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences/Engineering, 6 Changjiang Distinguished Professors, 16 recipients of the National Outstanding Youth Fund 23 national-level young talents, and 8 scientists were selected as World's Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate Analytics. In addition, SMSE has established long-term and stable cooperation with the relevant universities and scientific research institutes from the United States, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and so on.Currently, SMSE has an enrollment of 3336 students, including 1523 undergraduate students, 1196 graduate students, and 617 PhD candidates.

With a solid discipline foundation and interdisciplinary integration, SMSE plays an important role in supporting China’s S&T development strategy and insists on “promoting engineering with science”. It focuses on a wide variety of characteristic disciplines including Material Physics, Chemistry, Polymer Materials and Processing Engineering, Photoelectric Materials, Metal Materials and Processing Engineering, and Inorganic Non-metallic Materials. SMSE is known for its outstanding scientific research strength and achievements, which can be reflected by its more than 80 scientific awards, including 2 Second Prizes of the National Natural Science Award, 2 Second Prizes of the National Technological Innovation Award, 2 First Prize of Natural Science in Colleges and Universities of the Ministry of Education, 2 First Prize for Technical Invention in Colleges and Universities of the Ministry of Education and 11 First prizes in Science and Technology of Guangdong.

SMSE has been adhering to the excellent academic tradition, and endeavoring to create a good working environment and learning atmosphere for all teachers and students, and has made continuous progress in talent training, scientific research, social service, and cultural heritage. It has cultivated tens of thousands of materials professionals for the country.

At present, SMSE is making continuous efforts to promote the construction of world-class disciplines solidly and build an educational and research institution in the field of materials with international influence. SMSE aims to make new contributions to scientific progress and industrial development and push the scientific development and technological progress in future strategic new materials in China.


(last updated in January 2024)