Materials Science MSc Program

Materials Science is an interdisciplinary educational track at Skoltech relating to research in various focus areas including Advanced Materials, Energy, Space, Biology, Computations. The broad educational program builds upon several courses taught by faculty members of Center for Energy Science and Technology and elective courses delivered by members of other CREIs including Center for Photonics and Engineering and Center for Materials Technologies. Our lecturers conduct cutting edge research in Materials Science as evidenced by high median h-index ~30. In addition to the specialized expertise, the program delivers an interdisciplinary mix of engineering and natural sciences that is unique for the universities in Russia and beyond. Other core aspects of the program are industry immersion and the entrepreneurship and innovation component. Skoltech offers international environment and the opportunities for students to visit foreign universities and international conferences.

Curriculum

The education program consists of compulsory and elective courses with recommendations for three tracks – Experimental Materials Science, Computational Materials Science and Materials Engineering, as detailed below:

Compulsory courses for all tracks

Materials Chemistry

Research seminar Advanced Materials Science

Compulsory courses for all both experimental tracks (Experimental Materials Science and Materials Engineering)

Crystal Structure Investigation Methods (Term 3)

or/and  

Materials Characterization Techniques (Term 2)

and  

Electrochemistry: Fundamentals to Applications
Organic Chemistry for Energy Materials (Term 3)

Recommended electives in Experimental Materials Science

(Contact person: Stanislav Fedotov)

Catalysis of Sustainable development(Term 4)
Thermodynamics of Materials)
Crystal Chemistry

Structure and Properties of Materials

Catalysis of Sustainable development(Term 4)
Semiconducting Materials and Devices
Physics of Colloids and Interfaces


Recommended electives in Computational Materials Science

(Contact person: Dmitry Aksenov)

Compulsory courses:

Computational Chemistry and Materials Modeling (Term 2)
Advanced Materials Modeling (Term 4)
Computational Materials Science Seminar (Term 1B-2)

Recommended electives:

Structure and Property of Materials (Term 3)
Mathematics for Engineers (Term 1B)
Quantum Mechanics (Term 1B)
High Performance Python Lab (Term 2)
Introduction to Solid State Physics
Introduction to Materials Informatics
Machine Learning for Engineering Applications
Computations and Data in Atomic-level Modeling

Recommended electives in Materials Engineering

(Contact person: Alexander Korsunsky)

Applied Materials and Design (Term 4)
Carbon Nanomaterials (Term 3)
Aerosol Science and Technology(Term 2)
Design of Chemical Sensors: from Fundamentals to Applications(Term 4)
Fabrication Technology of Nanodevices
Materials Selection in Design

Other core courses and activities

  • Innovation Workshop (Term 1A) – trademark course introducing the culture of entrepreneurship and innovation
  • Entrepreneurship and Innovation Stream (12 credits) – comprehensive set of courses on the subject
  • Industrial Immersion – 8-week full-time internship in one of Russian or foreign companies
  • Academic Mobility Program – internships in top universities world-wide
  • Research Seminar (“Advanced Materials Science”) – every MSc and PhD student presents his/her research there
  • Computational Materials Science seminar – guest lectures of leading researchers in the subject

Other electives

Wide selection of elective courses is offered to fit best your career plans, see Course catalogue. In particular

  • English, Writing, Presentation, Pedagogy – to perfect communications skills
  • Background courses in math/physics – to fill gaps in undergraduate education:
    • Quantum Mechanics (Term 1 or 5)
    • Mathematics for Engineers (Gryazina, Term 1)
  • Introductory courses on various topics – to foster interdisciplinary research:
    • Introduction to Advanced Manufacturing Technologies (Safonov, Term 5)
    • Introduction to Data Science (Term 5)
    • Principles of Applied Statistics (Term 6 or 2)
  • Advanced courses most relevant for Experimental Materials Science:
    • Fabrication Technology of Nanodevices (Antonov, Term 3 or 7)
    • Soft Condensed Matter (Term 1B)
    • High Performance Python Lab (Term 2)
    • Aerosol Science and Technology (Term 2)
    • Organic Chemistry for Energy Materials (Term 3)
    • Thermodynamics of Materials (Term 4)
    • Catalysis of Sustainable development (Term 4)
  • Advanced courses most relevant for Computational Materials Science:
    • Numerical Modeling (Shapeev, Term 3 or 7)
    • Numerical Linear Algebra (Oseledets, Term 6)
    • Machine Learning (Burnaev, Term 7 or 3)
    • Deep Learning (Lempitsky, Term 4 or 8)
    • Machine Learning in Structural Bioinformatics and Chemoinformatics (Popov, Term 4 or 8)
    • Scientific Computing (Yarotsky, Term 5)
    • Mathematical Methods in Engineering and Applied Science (Kasimov, Terms 5-6)
    • Foundations of Multiscale Modeling: Kinetics (Brilliantov, Term 7)
    • Introduction to Linux and Supercomputers (Term 2 or 6)
  • Advanced courses most relevant for Materials Engineering:
    • Design of Chemical Sensors (Fedorov, Term 4)
    • Materials Selection in Design (Chugunov, Salimon, Term 6 or 2)
    • Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (Sukhorukov, Term 4)
    • Fundamentals of Additive Technologies (Shishkovsky, Term 7 or 3)

Master thesis

Skoltech professors offering Master projects in Materials Science are


Additional information can be found here:

The program is managed by:

  • Director of the program Stanislav Fedotov
  • Director of the CEST CREI Artem Abakumov
  • Coordinator of the program Dmitry Aksenov
  • Administrator of education and Industrial Immersion program manager at CEST Ekaterina Guseva

The curriculum development group includes Profs. A.Abakumov, D. Aksenov, S.Fedotov and other faculty members. Till 2022 it was managed also by Andriy Zhugayevich, Sergey Tretyak, Keith Stevenson. This development has been started in 2014 and incorporates educational and research standards of leading institutions in Materials Science and Engineering worldwide such as MIT/DMSE and LANL/CINT. In Russian education system the program is accredited as 22.04.01 “Материаловедение и технологии материалов”.