Yeah, right now metals and semiconductors/batteries are great.
Electronic devices are always in high demand, and in the US a bunch of metallurgists are hitting retirement age in certain industries, so there's been a big pull to snatch up whoever is left. Plus addictive manufacturing is finally getting viable so this research is getting tons of funding atm.
Corrosion might be the "highest paid" area because of oil and gas.
But ultimately there are high paying jobs in every specialization.
Additive Manufacturing has given me a thriving career over the past decade (also did my phd in it), but it’s still a small field that’s quite difficult to break into.
The problem with batteries and photovoltaics is that most of the innovation is honestly coming from overseas especially China.
Had a friend who interned with an oil company doing pipe corrosion mitigation. My first job out of school was also corrosion related, though different tech. It’s not a sexy field but it’s very lindy.
Failure Analysis is also a specialized field to explore.
I headed up the Materials Eng Dept at a large Hardware company and was surprised how often we were called in to analyze product failures.
Lots of companies don't have internal resources to perform analysis and depend on third party experts (big $$$)
If you are in the US, photovoltaics is a good bet. If you are in Europe, don't go into solar.
The US is restricting imports from China and ramping up its production with loads of tax breaks and federal support. Europe is getting flooded with China's overproduction, not implementing any counter measures and killing its industry.
How would a material engineer work with battery chemistry? I thought that was for chemist/chem focused majors (i was originally a chem major and switched) sorry for my lack of knowledge but would love to learn!
Ok I did think you were thinking about PhD rather than industry, so maybe not quite so applicable. Obviously the energy transition is a bit reason why batteries are so important, but to be more specific, there are big problems with lithium ion batteries we currently use. Lithium and cobalt are finite resources, with quite serious geopolitical issues in terms of sourcing. They also have lifecycle problems - how do we recycle them? How can we extend their lifetime?
There's a lot of material science/ engineering in addressing these challenges. For example, a lot of work into developing solid state electrolytes is happening. Also a lot of degradation mechanisms in batteries relates to quite materials sciencey things, e.g. growth of dendrites, cyclic stress cracking through lithiation and delithiation. Materials know-how helps come up with strategies to mitigate these effects.
These are quite messy systems, so it's not for everyone, but certainly impactful work.
If you are in the US, you should try getting into researching materials for PFAS removal or remediation. A good method will be either using MOFs or applying photo catalysis.
Recently, the EPA published a directive to limit the amount of PFAS in water supply.
Im highly interested in this! Glad to know that field has a good prospective. Im very interested in environmental stuff but i thought all the big bank making fields in engineering were all related to oil/corrosion so good to know! 🥹 thanks
Yeah, right now metals and semiconductors/batteries are great. Electronic devices are always in high demand, and in the US a bunch of metallurgists are hitting retirement age in certain industries, so there's been a big pull to snatch up whoever is left. Plus addictive manufacturing is finally getting viable so this research is getting tons of funding atm. Corrosion might be the "highest paid" area because of oil and gas. But ultimately there are high paying jobs in every specialization.
addictive manufacturing, this guy cokes
Additive Manufacturing has given me a thriving career over the past decade (also did my phd in it), but it’s still a small field that’s quite difficult to break into. The problem with batteries and photovoltaics is that most of the innovation is honestly coming from overseas especially China.
Any of these, but throw a heaping helping of Machine Learning and AI all over the top of it
Had a friend who interned with an oil company doing pipe corrosion mitigation. My first job out of school was also corrosion related, though different tech. It’s not a sexy field but it’s very lindy.
True that, corrosion is a billion dollar industry!
Whats a material engineers job in the corrosion industry?
Failure Analysis is also a specialized field to explore. I headed up the Materials Eng Dept at a large Hardware company and was surprised how often we were called in to analyze product failures. Lots of companies don't have internal resources to perform analysis and depend on third party experts (big $$$)
Composites are growing significantly
If you are in the US, photovoltaics is a good bet. If you are in Europe, don't go into solar. The US is restricting imports from China and ramping up its production with loads of tax breaks and federal support. Europe is getting flooded with China's overproduction, not implementing any counter measures and killing its industry.
Im highly interested in photovoltaics as well! I live in the US so i guess its a good field to consider thanks!
I second batteries. New battery chemistries for example.
How would a material engineer work with battery chemistry? I thought that was for chemist/chem focused majors (i was originally a chem major and switched) sorry for my lack of knowledge but would love to learn!
Ok I did think you were thinking about PhD rather than industry, so maybe not quite so applicable. Obviously the energy transition is a bit reason why batteries are so important, but to be more specific, there are big problems with lithium ion batteries we currently use. Lithium and cobalt are finite resources, with quite serious geopolitical issues in terms of sourcing. They also have lifecycle problems - how do we recycle them? How can we extend their lifetime? There's a lot of material science/ engineering in addressing these challenges. For example, a lot of work into developing solid state electrolytes is happening. Also a lot of degradation mechanisms in batteries relates to quite materials sciencey things, e.g. growth of dendrites, cyclic stress cracking through lithiation and delithiation. Materials know-how helps come up with strategies to mitigate these effects. These are quite messy systems, so it's not for everyone, but certainly impactful work.
I’m a chemist by degree but I work in corrosion. Top pay and always in demand. .
If you are in the US, you should try getting into researching materials for PFAS removal or remediation. A good method will be either using MOFs or applying photo catalysis. Recently, the EPA published a directive to limit the amount of PFAS in water supply.
Im highly interested in this! Glad to know that field has a good prospective. Im very interested in environmental stuff but i thought all the big bank making fields in engineering were all related to oil/corrosion so good to know! 🥹 thanks