Postwar boom

The Department of Materials Science and Engineering takes shape.

The merger of the College of Mining with the College of Engineering in 1942 makes resources available to pursue emerging materials science. Walter S. Meeks is the first department chair of the new Department of Mining and Metallurgy. Beyond the existing fields of mining, metallurgy and petroleum engineering, new disciplines are added to the curriculum that reflect California’s changing economy and industry: physical metallurgy (1941), ceramic engineering (1948) and geological engineering (1956). The name is changed to the Department of Mineral Technology in 1948 to more accurately describe the curricular options.

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