The Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering (MSNE) offers graduate degree pro-grams that emphasize fundamental and applied aspects of materials science and nanoengineering. The graduate educational and research programs lead to degrees of Master of Science (MSMSNE), Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), and Master of Materials Science (MMSNE) with options in Materials Science or NanoEngineering. The MSMSNE and PhD degrees require research and theses, while the MMSNE is a non-thesis degree. The graduate program in materials science and nanoengineering is an interdisciplinary program with its core activity in advanced materials research. Special research opportunities include Bioma-terials, Carbon Nanomaterials Composites, Computational Materials Science and Material Theories, Electron Microscopy and in situ Methods, Electronic Materials,Energy Conversion and Storage, Low Dimensional Materials, Mechanical Properties and Nanomechanics, Nanotechnology, Optical Materi-als, Photonics and Nanoplasmonics, Surfaces, Interfaces, Coatings and Thin Films, Ultralight-Weight Ultrahigh-Strength Multifunctional Materials. Materials science has several faculty members with joint appointments in other science and engineering areas, assuring a diverse program in a broad materials science field. The MSNE graduate program actively partners with other departments, campus institutes, the Texas Medical Center, and industry in its educational and research activities. These collaborations reflect the comprehensive scope of the research activities that make graduate study in MSNE a reward-ing experience.

DEGREE REQUIREMENTSThe MSMSNE degree requires successful completion of at least 30 semester hours of study (including six hours of thesis), of which 24 hours must have been at Rice. Upon completion of the thesis, students are required to defend the MSMSNE dissertation in a public oral examination. The non-research Master’s degree requires the completion of at least 30 semester hours of course work approved by the department. The PhD degree requires successful completion of a minimum of 90 total semester hours (thesis research +36 semester hours of course work) and an oral qualifying examination. Graduate students are required to defend the dissertation for their PhD in a public oral examination. The minimum residence requirement is four semesters for the PhD degree and one semester for the Master’s degree. All entering graduate students pursuing a thesis degree will be subject to the Preliminary Candidacy Evaluation for the highest degree they intend to pursue. Students will be evaluated within the second semester of enrollment, and then on an annual basis.

FACULTYPulickel Ajayan. Department Chair. Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor of Me- chanical Engineering and Materials Engineering Science and Professor of Chemistry. Ph.D. (1989) Northwestern University. He was involved in pioneering early work in the development of carbon nanotubes. Over the past two decades he has published more than five hundred papers, focusing on the materials science and applications of nanomaterials and their structure-property correlations. His work has covered diverse areas of nanomaterials including nanoparticles, nanotubes, two-dimensional materials including graphene and beyond and design of nanocomposite and energy storage materials. He is the recipient of awards such as the Spiers memorial award from the Royal Society of Chemistry,

GRADUATE STUDY IN MATERIALS SCIENCE AND NANOENGINEERING Rice University

MSNE.RICE.EDU

For admission in 2014–2015

Graduate Study at

Materials Research Society medal, Alexander von Humboldt-Helmoltz senior award. He has also been recognized as distinguished alumni by his Alma Mater Banaras Hindu University and the department of materials science at Northwestern University and has received Docteur Honoris Causa from the Université Catholique de Louvain. Before joining Rice, his was at various premier institutions around the world; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY), Max-Planck Institute for Metallforschung (Stuttgart, Germany), Laboratoire de Physique des Solides (Orsay, France) and NEC Corporation (Tsukuba, Japan).

Wade Adams. Senior Faculty Fellow. PhD (1984) University of Mas-sachusetts. Dr. Adams joined Rice University in January 2002, as the Director of the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, later named the Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology at Rice University, the first organized nanotech center in the world, founded in 1993 by its namesake. In January 2012 he became Associate Dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering. He joined the Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering in July 2013 as a Senior Faculty Fellow. Dr. Adams retired from the U.S. Air Force senior executive ranks in January 2002, as the Chief Scientist of the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Air Force Research Laboratory. Dr. Adams also retired from the Air Force Reserve with the rank of Colonel in 1998.

Enrique V. Barrera. Professor of Materials Science and NanoEngineer- ing. PhD (1987) University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Barrera’s research interests are in the areas of composites, coatings and thin film interface systems, with special interest in nanotechnology, where he develops new materials based on fullerenes and nanotubes. He is an NSF National Young Investigator and recipient of two Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards, Conference Awards in Technical Achievement and Education. He also received the 2002 Presidential Award for Excel-lence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. A member of the American Society of Materials and the Materials Society, and Professor of Chemistry, a registered professional engineer in the State of Texas, and Fellow of the American Society of Material Fellows, se-lected as a 2006 Hispanic Business Magazine’s 100 Most Influential. He is the co-founder of Nano Ridge Materials, Inc. and the chief technical officer in C-Band systems.

Robert Hauge. Distinguished Faculty Fellow in Chemistry and Materials Science and NanoEngineering. PhD (1965) University of California Berkeley. Single wall carbon nanotubes have many potential applica-tions in energy, power, electrical, sensor and strong lightweight materi-als. For many of the applications they must be made in large amounts at low cost and preferably with specific diameters and band gaps, for instance as semiconductors or metallic tubes. The primary goal of my research is to develop new swnt growth methods that can be scaled to pound and ultimately ton quantities where only specific types of swnt are grown. In addition a second goal is the development of scalable chemistries of swnt that permit swnt to be dispersed as molecular spe-cies in solvents and polymers.

Jun Lou. Associate Chair, Associate Professor of Materials Science and NanoEngineering. PhD (2004) Princeton University. Dr. Lou’s research interests include nanomaterial synthesis, nanomechanical characterization and nanodevice fabrication for energy and biomedi-cal applications. He is a recipient of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award and ORAU Ralph E. Powe Junior

Faculty Enhancement Award. Dr. Lou is a member of the ASME Multifunctional Materials Committee and the TMS Nanomechanical Materials Behavior Committee and Biomaterials Committee. He also is a member of the Materials Research Society.

Rex B. McLellan. Professor Emeritus of Materials Science. PhD (1962) Leeds University. An active researcher in thermodynamics, kinetics and statistical mechanics of metallic solid solutions, Dr. McLellan is an internationally recognized authority in his field. He has published and lectured extensively at universities and laboratories throughout the world. He is a member of the American Society for Metals, the Ameri-can Institute for Mining and Metallurgical Engineers and the society of Sigma Xi and is a distinguished scientist of Tau Beta Pi. He has twice received the U.S. Senior Scientist Award of the German government.

Emilie Ringe. Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Nano-Engineering, as well as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Rice University. She earned her B.A./M.S. (summa cum laude) as well as her Ph.D. from Northwestern University where she held a Presidential Fellowship. Her M.S. thesis, carried under the supervision of James A. Ibers, is entitled “Structure Determination and Characterization of UCuOP, UCu0.6Sb2 and UFeSe3, Three Uranium Compounds Containing a First Row Transition Metal” and explored the synthesis, crystallography, and conductivity of uranium compounds with an aim at better understanding 3d/5f electron interactions. Her doctoral studies were supervised by Richard P. Van Duyne and Laurence D. Marks and focused on new statistical approaches to the correlation of plasmonic behavior and particle morphology in noble metal particles (Ag and Au) as well as new analytical models to predict the shape of small alloy and kinetically grown nanoparticles. She obtained her Ph.D. in 2012 with a thesis entitled “Building the Nanoplasmonics Toolbox through Shape Modeling and Single Particle Optical Studies”, and for that work received the Excellence in Graduate Research Award. After her time at Northwestern, Dr. Ringe became the Gott Research Fellow at Trinity Hall as well as a Newton International Research Fellow (Royal Society) in the Electron Microscopy group in the Materials Science and Metal-lurgy Department at Cambridge University. There, she studied atomic resolution and three-dimensional reconstruction of alloy nanoparticles relevant for catalysis and plasmonic applications, as well as near-field plasmon mapping using electron energy loss spectroscopy. Extending her spectroscopy expertise, together with John Bulmer in the group of Dr. Koziol she built a Raman system to probe the properties of carbon nanotubes.

Edwin L. Thomas. William & Stephanie Sick Dean of Engineering, Professor of Materials Science and NanoEngineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Chemistry. PhD (1974) Cornell Uni- versity. Dr. Thomas’ research interests are currently focused on using 2D and 3D lithography, direct-write and block copolymer self-assembly techniques for creating polymer based metamaterials with unprec-edented mechanical and thermal properties. Dr. Thomas is the former head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a position he held from 2006 until his appointment at Rice. He was named Morris Cohen Professor of Materials Science and Engineering in 1989 and is the founder and former director of the MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology (2002-2006). Before joining MIT, Thomas founded and served as co-director of the Institute for Interface Science and was head of the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering at the University of Massachusetts. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and

CAMPUS VISITWe encourage you to visit Rice at any time for a firsthand look at the department and the beautiful, tree-lined campus near the heart of historic Houston. During your time here, you will not only visit with faculty, but usually you’ll be hosted by current graduate students from whom you can learn more about gradu-ate life and lifestyles in Houston. In the meantime, feel free to contact the department with any questions you may have about its programs or the university.

HOW TO APPLY TO THE GRADUATE PROGRAM:• You will find application instructions on the following

MSNE Web site: msne.rice.edu• You can access the online applications and instructions at

https://msnegradapps.rice.edu• General information about Rice University graduate school

admissions can be found at: https://graduate.rice.edu

For further information:• You may write to Studies Program Administrator Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering–MS 325 Rice University P.O. Box 1892 Houston, TX 77251-1892 Phone: 713-348-3698 Fax: 713-348-5423

• Or e-mail: msne@rice.edu

Questions regarding the application process and applications should not be emailed to the MSNE faculty.

Transcripts should be submitted by mail to the address above. All other application materials should be uploaded to the online application.

A complete application must include:• Official transcripts from all colleges and universities attended.

Colleges and universities should mail original transcripts to the above mentioned address.

• Three letters of recommendation with Rice University recom-mendation forms attached (Online letters of recommendation are available.)

• $85 application fee• Please request the Educational Testing Service (ETS) to send

us: 1.) Official GRE scores taken within the last three years 2.) Official Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL)

or the IELTS, if English is a second language

Most of our students are admitted for the fall semester each year, as our classes and programs are structured to begin in the fall. However, students to be admitted in the spring semester is taken into consideration.

For more information, visit our Web site: msne.rice.edu

the National Academy of Engineering in 2009, Inaugural Fellow of the Materials Society in 2008, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2003 and Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1986. Currently he serves as the William and Stephanie Sick Dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering at Rice University.

Robert Vajtai. Senior Faculty Fellow. PhD (1997) Univeristy of Szeged (formerly Jozsef Attila University). From 1987 to 2002 he was tenured faculty in the Department of Experimental Physics. He was rewarded the Bolyai Fellowship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences for 1999-2000, spent sabbaticals as a Fellow of the Swedish Institute in The Ångstrom Laboratory in Uppsala in 1998-1999; as an Eötvös Fellow at the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1995-1996 and at the Max Planck Institute in Göttingen, Germany in 1993. Before joining Rice in 2008, Vajtai spent eight years at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He was the Laboratory Manager of the nanoparticle generation and the carbon nanotechnology laboratories at the Rensselaer Nanotechnology Center.

Boris I. Yakobson. Karl F. Hasselmann Chair Professor in Engineering, Professor of Materials Science and NanoEngineering, and Professor of Chemistry. PhD (1982) Russian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Yakobson’s research interests are in theory and modeling of structure, kinetics and properties of materials, derived from both macroscopic and fundamen-tal molecular interactions. Computational methods and simulation are used to visualize and enhance the understanding of underlying physics and to identify the efficient degrees of freedom in complex systems, especially in connecting different length scales of description. Dr. Yako-bson serves as a scientific advisor for Cognitech, Inc. (Pasadena). He is an editorial board member of the Scientific Reports (Nature), Journal of Nanoparticle Research and a few other journals. In 2008, Yakobson received a Research & Development Award from the US Department of Energy, Nano 50 Award from the science magazine Nanotech Briefs for his innovation in nanotechnology and the Hydrogen Program Special Recognition Award from the DOE in 2010.

FACILITIESGraduate education and research are supported by state-of-the-art equipments within the department and across campus, including a state-of-the-art electron microscopy facility, a large number of dedicated instruments for synthesis and characterization of advanced materials, and the Rice Shared Equipment Authority (SEA) with more than 100 pieces of shared equipment across campus.

FINANCIAL INFORMATIONApplicants who are made offers of admission to a thesis degree pro-gram are offered a nine month department fellowship plus a tuition waiver. The tuition for 2014-15 is $38,260. The MSNE monthly stipend is $2,000. The tuition for Professional Master’s Degree program is cur-rently $32,000.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:Rice UniversityDepartment of Materials Science and NanoEngineering –MS 325P.O. Box 1892Houston, TX 77251-1892Phone: 713-348-3582Fax: 713-348-5423E-mail: msne@rice.eduWeb site: msne.rice.edu

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:Rice University homepage: www.rice.edu

Rice University Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies homepage: graduate.rice.eduRice University Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS) homepage: oiss.rice.eduGraduate Student Association homepage: gsa.rice.eduCity of Houston homepage: www.houstontx.govHouston information from the Houston Chronicle: www.chron.comHouston information from the Greater Houston Partnership: www.houston.orgHouston information from Citysearch: http://houston.citysearch.com

ABOUT RICE AND HOUSTON Rice is a leading American research university—small, private and highly selective—distinguished by a collaborative, interdisciplinary culture and a global perspective. Only a few miles from downtown Houston, it oc-cupies an architecturally distinctive, 285-acre campus shaded by nearly 4,000 trees. State-of-the-art facilities and laboratories, internationally renowned centers and institutes and one of the country’s largest endow-ments support an ideal learning and living environment. The university attracts a diverse group of highly talented students and faculty with outstanding graduate and professional programs in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, engineering, architecture, music and business. With just 2,636 graduate students and 3,848 under-graduates, it offers an unusual opportunity to forge close relationships with eminent faculty scholars and researchers and the option to tailor graduate programs to specific interests. Houston offers all the expected educational, cultural and com-

mercial advantages of a large urban center, and more. It’s home of the Texas Medical Center, the largest concentration of medical schools, hospitals and research facilities in the world, as well as several other universities. Rice has cooperative programs with the University of Hous-ton, Baylor College of Medicine, the University of Texas Health Science Center and Texas Southern University. Houston is one of the few U.S. cities with resident companies in all four major performing arts—drama, ballet, opera and symphony. It also boasts a museum district featuring exhibits of national and international prominence. As urban as it is, Houston also is a surprisingly green city. Hous-tonians enjoy the outdoors in more than 300 municipal parks and 120 open spaces, and many frequent the beach at Galveston Island, only a 45-minute drive away. Other short trips include Austin, the state’s capital, and historic San Antonio, both of which are a little more than three hours away.