Department of Materials Science

The Department of Materials Science (DCM), NOVA School of Science and Technology, was the first to be created nationally in 1976 at the initiative of its first president, Prof. Leopoldo Guimarães. The initial aim was to create university extension courses in the field of materials leading to the creation of a root degree covering a wide range of scientific areas, including metallurgy, semiconductor materials, polymeric materials and mesomorph, ceramic materials and crystals, crystal chemistry and quality control.

Since then the Department of Materials Science has grown and diversified its activities, mainly due to the efforts of its faculty and staff, embodied in a large number of projects (academic and industrial) funded by National, European and International authorities. This allowed its modern adaptation to new technologies, providing  for such a unique laboratory infrastructure in Portugal, for teaching and research, internationally recognized and that has allowed to form Material Science Engineers of high scientific quality , able to respond to current society's demands.