How do you become a ceramics engineer?

When you think of ceramics, pottery and coffee mugs may be the first things that come to mind. But ceramics play a big role in industrial design and engineering. Ceramics engineering is actually a fast-growing, lucrative career field. Like most professional, technical careers, the best first step to becoming a ceramics engineer is by going to a ceramic engineering program. A ceramic engineering program can help to prepare you for the field, which is ever-changing and technically demanding. Ceramics play a primary role in the design of many products because the materials have the ability to increase or decrease magnetic, thermal, and electrical properties. This property of ceramics makes them incredibly valuable to the engineering process of millions of products. Ceramics are also low-cost compared to other common industrial materials.

Students in ceramic engineering programs have the opportunity to be part of a field that impacts environmental issues like recycling and energy conservation. They also learn basic science and engineering while simultaneously growing their analytical and computational skills.

In a ceramic engineering program, you will develop a comprehensive understanding of ceramic materials, including their behavior in different temperatures, their processing and structure, and their industrial applications. A good program will teach you about the mechanical properties of ceramic materials and their atomic scale properties. Many programs require students to take a certain number of elective courses outside the area of ceramics engineering, which broaden your educational horizons.

Ceramic engineers work with inorganic, nonmetallic materials to develop materials that support products and systems that impact all our lives. For instance, fiber optic materials are critical to the telecommunications industry, and cell phones would not be possible without the development of electronic ceramics.

While there are ceramic engineering programs at many colleges and universities, here are some notable programs to consider:

• Alfred University’s Ceramic Engineering Graduate Programs
• Penn State's Materials Science and Engineering Department
• Rutgers' Materials Science and Engineering Program
• and Clemson's Materials Science and Engineering Graduate Programs

And don't forget! If you're interested in ceramics engineering, don't miss out on the Dean of the NYS College of Ceramic's upcoming talk on glass.