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Materials engineering

Made for you if you’re known as a Mr. or Ms. Fix-It and you want to reduce the environmental footprint of what we manufacture.
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Did you know

  • $142,431

    Average salary

    (Genium360, Remuneration of engineering professionals in Quebec – Investigation report 2025-2026)

  • 4 years

    Duration of the bachelor’s degree in materials engineering

  • 90%

    Of everyday objects come from metals and minerals

  • They’re everywhere around you

    Your phone, your chair, your car, the walls of your home — almost every object in your daily life contains metals and minerals. Materials engineering is the science behind all of this: understanding these materials, improving them, and inventing the ones of tomorrow.

  • Ultra-lightweight wheelchairs

    Thanks to advanced materials: lighter, stronger, freer.

  • Materials that don’t exist yet

    Recyclable plastics, advanced ceramics, composites: the materials of the future are created here.

What you will actually do

As a materials engineer, you’ll develop and optimize the materials that make up the industrial world.

  • Study and improve methods for processing ores to extract metals.
  • Coordinate the stages of metal production and refining, including smelting and foundry operations.
  • Analyze and improve manufacturing processes to reduce costs and environmental impact.
  • Create new materials (plastics, ceramics, powders) that will have new properties once recycled.
  • Develop recycling or disposal processes that comply with environmental standards.

Source: REPÈRES, the official school and career information website (in French)

Where do you see yourself?

Materials engineers work in sectors as varied as aerospace, the mining industry, and research.

  • Engineering consulting firms
  • Metals sector
  • Composites sector
  • Aerospace sector
  • Railway industry
  • Industrial machinery manufacturing plants
  • Universities and higher-education institutions
  • Federal and provincial government
  • Steel industry
  • Copper rolling, molding, and extrusion industry
  • Mining and quarrying industry
  • Testing and analysis laboratories

Where to study

Universities offering the program

Université McGill

DOZENS OF METALS IN YOUR POCKET

Gold, lithium, cobalt: welcome to your phone.

Every phone is a concentration of materials engineering. Engineers determine which materials to use, how to process them, and how to recycle them.

40 metals

In your phone alone

FEWER GHGs IN THE SKY

A sustainable aviation fuel that reduces GHGs by 80%.

The eco-friendly fuel (“e-fuel”), developed thanks to materials engineering, is an alternative to fossil kerosene. Over an aircraft’s entire life cycle, it reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 80%.

Read the article on sustainable aviation fuel

Play Mission Génie to discover the type of engineering that suits you!

An interactive game to explore the different types of engineering and find the one that best matches your interests and talents.