Academics
If you look from a distance at a city skyline, you can see skyscrapers, bridges and smoking chimneys. As soon as you get closer to the edge of town, trams, cars and people walking through the streets with their smartphones catch their eye. All these things have in common that materials are needed to achieve the desired function. Skyscrapers would look rather dull without the huge glass fronts and modern houses and bridges would collapse without the structural steel. Without electronic components made of high-performance ceramics and optics for the cameras, smartphones would not work as we know them today. Regardless of the material (glass, ceramic, metal), it was for the most part refractory materials that made high-temperature processes possible.
As part of Division of Materials Science and Engineering, the Institute of Mineral Engineering researches and develops inorganic materials. The need for glasses and ceramics is often hidden from an inattentive user. However, the potential of both materials is immense, especially in the fields of construction and high-temperature materials or medical technology.
If you would like to learn more about the possibilities and production processes of glasses and ceramics, then you can study Materials Engineering, Materials Science or Business Administration and Engineering, Materials and Process Engineering at the RWTH Aachen University. In an in-depth Master's programme, you can then specialize in one of the materials.