The Material Science and Engineering program is devoted to preparing students to tackle the major challenges facing the world challenges, especially sustainability and alternative energy. With support from KAUST’s state-of-the-art core laboratories and research centers such as the Imaging Characterization Facilities, Nanofabrication Facilities, Solar Center, and Catalysis Center, the program aims to equip students with fundamental and applied knowledge in four areas: nanomaterial design & synthesis, energy conversion materials and devices, advanced characterization techniques, and computational material science.​

Following the spirit of KAUST, research at MSE is performed in a collaborative, interdisciplinary and application-oriented environment that will efficiently address the actual need of the human society.

The program is currently composed of 14 faculty members, addressing various domains in material science and engineering,

As an independent and merit-based institution and one of the World's best endowed universities, KAUST intends to become a major new contributor to the global network of collaborative research. KAUST has already formed partnerships with some 27 other universities, including Stanford, Cornell, Harvard and Caltech in the US and Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College in the UK. Students and Faculty work with, and have access to, partners from both the Academic Excellence Alliance and the Global Research Partnership on special research projects.