材料科学，又名为材料工程，涉及物质的性质及其在各个科学和工程学领域的集成应用，是一个研究材料的制备或加工工艺、材料的微观结构与材料宏观性能三者之间的相互关系的跨领域学科。涉及的理论包括固体物理学，材料化学，应用物理和化学，以及化学工程，机械工程，土木工程和电机工程。与电子工程结合，则衍生出电子材料，与机械结合则衍生出结构材料，与生物学结合则衍生出生物材料等等。随着近年来媒体将注意力大量集中在纳米科学上，材料科学在科学与工程学领域越来越广为人知。它也是鉴识科学和破坏分析中的一个重要组成部分，以后者为例，它是分析各种飞航意外的关键。今日许多科技上的问题受限于材料能够容许的极限，也因此，在此领域的突破在未来科技具有指标性的影响。

The interdisciplinary field of materials science, also commonly known as materials science and engineering, involves the discovery and design of new materials, with an emphasis on solids. The intellectual origins of materials science stem from the Enlightenment, when researchers began to use analytical thinking from chemistry, physics, and engineering to understand ancient, phenomenological observations in metallurgy and mineralogy. Materials science still incorporates elements of physics, chemistry, and engineering. As such, the field was long thought of as a sub-field of these related fields. In recent years, materials science has become more widely recognized as a specific and distinct field of science and engineering. Many of the most pressing scientific problems humans currently face are due to the limitations of the materials that are available and, as a result, breakthroughs in materials science are likely to have a significant impact on the future of technology.