Yet despite this abundance of metals and materials, development in almost all field of engineering is limited by the availability of suitable materials with specific properties. In other words, the nature and quality of the materials in a device are as important as the ingenuity with which is it designed. In addition to the exciting challenge of developing new materials and understanding their properties, physical metallurgy and materials engineering is concerned with optimising the use of raw materials and energy by controlling and developing more efficient fabrication processes. The field offers an enormous range of activities and fields of influence, with a high degree of job satisfaction for both men and women. Qualified metallurgists and materials engineers are employed in industry, commerce and government.
Industrial careers range across the mining, atomic energy, petrochemical end steel industries.
Metallurgical graduates are found in car and aircraft manufacture, defence and manu light engineering industries. Clearly, many of the posts involve, or can lead to, a career in management. Additionally, there are many positions for metallurgists and material scientists in research laboratories, whether government, industry or university based. Here, their function is to improve on existing properties and fabrication processes, and to explore new materials. This type of career has proved to be particularly popular with women graduates.