Materials Science is the study of the characteristics and uses of various materials,
such as metals, ceramics, and plastics (polymers), that are employed in science and technology.
Materials science, by nature, is interdisciplinary, employing and integrating concepts and
techniques from many disciplines, including chemistry, biology, physics, and mathematics.
A MATERIALS SCIENCE TIMELINE |
| 1500s |
1556
Georgius Agricola's De re metallica, a compendium of 16th century mining, metallurgical, and general
materials production, is published. |
| 1600s |
1664
Cartesian corpuscular philosophy recognizes material properties as emerging from a multilevel structure. |
1665
Robert Hooke publishes Micrographia, which reveals levels of material microstructure never before
seen. |
| 1700s |
1722
René de Réaumur publishes the first technical treatise on iron. |
1782
Josiah Wedgwood develops an early form of process control with his invention of the pyrometer for
measuring furnace temperatures. |
| 1800s |
1808
John Dalton publishes his New System of Chemical Philosophy, which establishes atomic theory. |
1824
Joseph Aspdin invents portland cement, which remains one of the most used materials in the world. |
1839
Charles Goodyear accidentally discovers vulcanization, which ultimately renders raw rubber latex
into a widely useful material. |
1856
Henry Bessemer patents a process for large-scale steel production. |
1860s
Henry Sorby applies light microscopy to the study of the microstructure of metals and rocks. |
1869
John Hyatt successfully commercializes celluloid, an artificial plastic material. |
1869 and 1870
Dmitri Mendeleev and Julius Lothar Meyer publish versions of what will become known as the Periodic
Table of the Chemical Elements. |
1886
Charles Hall and Paul Héroult independently discover cost- effective methods for producing
aluminum metal from ore. |
1893
Floris Osmond discovers martensitic transformation. |
| 1900s |
1900
Max Planck formulates the idea of quanta, thereby setting the stage for the development of quantum
mechanics. |
1906
Alfred Wilm discovers age hardening in aluminum alloy, which is later used for making dirigibles
and other aircraft. |
1909
Leo Baekeland patents Bakelite, the first entirely synthetic plastic, and commercializes it widely. |
1911
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovers superconductivity in mercury chilled to temperatures near absolute
zero. |
1911-12
The father-son team of William Henry and William Lawrence Bragg, along with Max von Laue, develops
the basis of x-ray crystallography, one of the most important analytic techniques for studying
material structure. |
1921
A. A. Griffith postulates role of defects in fracture strength. |
Late 1920s
Hermann Staudinger argues that polymers are made of small molecules that link to form chains. |
1934
Wallace Hume Carothers invents nylon. |
1940s
The wartime practice of organizing multidisciplinary research collaborations to achieve technological
goals becomes a model for the subsequent organization of a field that later becomes known as
materials science and engineering. |
1947
John Bardeen, William Shockley, and Walter Brattain invent the transistor. |
1950s to 1960s
Much of the theoretical foundation behind the formation and evolution of material microstructure
is developed. Among them is the Hall-Petch relation for grain refinement strengthening and the
theory of diffusion of solids. |
1953
Karl Ziegler develops catalysts that make it easier and cheaper to polymerize ethylene into stronger,
more capable polymers. |
1955
A team of scientists at General Electric combine high temperatures and enormous pressures to create
synthetic diamond. |
1957
John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and John Schrieffer provide theoretical basis for superconductivity,
discovered in 1911. |
1959
The U.S. government funds the first IDLs, or interdisciplinary laboratories, which mark a beginning
of the modern academic model of materials science and engineering. J. W. Cahn and J. F. Hilliard
develop theory of microstructural evolution in diffuse-interface systems. |
1970
Researchers at Corning develop optical fibers transparent enough to make fiber optic communication
practical. |
1974
A study by an NAS committee, COSMAT, defines field of materials science and engineering, creating
a community sensibility. |
1980
Gerd Binnig (right) and Heinrich Rohrer (left) invent scanning tunneling microscopy, which has
led to a family of imaging tools often capable of molecular- and atomic-scale resolution. |
1985
First university "materials by design" initiatives attempt computational materials design. |
1986
K. Alex Müller and J. Georg Bednorz discover high-temperature superconductivity in ceramic
materials. |
1990s
The field of materials science and engineering begins shifting into a more systems-based approach
to materials innovation and toward materials design in which researchers can predict new materials
they would like to have rather than having to discover them. |
