The college of Materials Science and Engineering was established in 2011, originating from the steel rolling major established when the college was founded in 1958. It has gone through several iterations, evolving from "Steel Metallurgy Department" to "Nonferrous Metals Department," "Materials Engineering Department," "College of Materials and Chemical Engineering," and finally "College of Materials Science and Engineering." The college has long been committed to talent cultivation and scientific research in China's nonferrous metal industry and rare earth field, specializing in advanced rare metal functional materials, nonferrous metal functional and structural materials, advanced energy and power battery materials, among others. The college adheres to the educational philosophy of "seeking support through contribution, striving for advantages with characteristics, and seeking development through innovation," making significant contributions to the rapid development of Jiangxi's economy, particularly in the fields of copper, tungsten, rare earths, and lithium batteries.
Currently, the college offers two undergraduate majors: Metal Materials Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering. The Metal Materials Engineering major is a national pilot program for cultivating "excellent engineers," a national first-class undergraduate major construction site, a national engineering education accreditation major, a first-class construction major in Jiangxi Province, a five-star major in Jiangxi Province, and a major with advantages in Jiangxi Province. The Materials Science and Engineering major has been recognized as a branded major, a featured major, and a first-class major in Jiangxi Province. The college has a solid disciplinary foundation, being a first-class discipline in Jiangxi Province during the "14th Five-Year Plan," a key discipline in Jiangxi Province since the "9th Five-Year Plan," and listed among the "Top 50 Comprehensive Strength of Chinese University Materials" by the New Materials Online Network in 2016. In 2023, it ranked in the top 40% of Soft Science's China's Best Discipline Rankings, with "Materials Science" being among the top 5‰disciplines in ESI globally. The college currently has one first-level discipline academic master's degree authorization point in Materials Science and Engineering, one professional master's degree authorization point in Materials and Chemical Engineering, and one interdisciplinary academic master's degree authorization point in Nanoengineering and Resource Recycling. It has one provincial teaching and research team and two provincial scientific research innovation teams. Since 2013, the college has been training doctoral students under special projects, expanded to include metallurgical engineering in 2018, and established joint talent training programs with the Ganjiang Innovation Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2022, completing multiple rounds of doctoral talent training. There are currently over 1,600 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the college.
The college has a strong faculty team, consisting of highly skilled researchers and teachers with high teaching standards and reasonable educational backgrounds, titles, and age structures. It has 81 full-time teachers, including 13 professors, with 91.2% of them holding doctoral degrees and 98% having industry experience. The college has one national-level Huang Danian-style teacher team, one exemplary branch of the Party building, one full-time appointment of an academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, one reserve candidate for academicians, one talent selected by the Ministry of Science and Technology for technological innovation and entrepreneurship, one national-level candidate for the "New Century Talents Project," one Class A talent selected by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, one recipient of Baosteel Outstanding Teacher Award, and 30 high-level talents selected under various provincial "Double Thousand Plans." It relies on five national platforms such as the National Rare Earth Functional Materials Innovation Center and the National Copper Processing and Smelting Engineering Technology Research Center, as well as more than ten provincial platforms for talent cultivation and scientific research. It has built one provincial nonferrous metal materials experimental teaching demonstration center, covering an area of nearly 10,000 square meters, with equipment worth approximately 100 million yuan, and jointly established more than 30 practical teaching bases.
In recent years, the college has undertaken over 60 national-level new engineering projects, provincial and ministerial quality engineering projects, and provincial-level educational reform projects, winning four provincial and ministerial-level or above teaching achievement awards, publishing 15 textbooks, and presenting over 80 educational reform papers. It has undertaken over 200 national-level, provincial and ministerial-level scientific research projects, with accumulated research funding of nearly 100 million yuan, won over 20 provincial and ministerial-level scientific and technological awards, published over 600 high-level academic papers, and obtained over 100 domestic and foreign invention patents. The transformation benefits of the patent group in the field of nonferrous metal materials exceed 270 million yuan.
Looking ahead to the new century, the college will uphold the spirit of the university motto "Aim High and Be Responsible" and the college motto "Diligence, Sincerity, Truth, and Reality," striving to build the college into a high-level teaching and research-oriented institution with comprehensive disciplines, strong overall strength, significant influence domestically, and first-class talent cultivation, basic research, and technological innovation in Jiangxi Province.