MSN 501 Atomic Structure, Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Materials

MSN 501 builds the solid-state foundation that the rest of the materials science program rests on: starting from how atoms pack into crystals and how that geometry, through reciprocal space, diffraction, and symmetry, dictates everything mechanical, thermal, and electronic that follows. You'll work through Kittel chapter by chapter, with two written midterms (one take-home), a final, and weekly problem sets that push you from lattice arithmetic into phonons, free-electron gases, and band theory. It's the gateway graduate course, without it the later electives on semiconductors, nanomaterials, and transport won't have a vocabulary to stand on.