The Center was formed to take advantage of strengths in the Department of Chemistry and build on these strengths. The Department has internationally recognized programs in coal science and thermal analysis. Rapidly growing programs including atomic spectroscopy, surface analysis, and polymer characterization are receiving increased attention, and are being actively promoted. Established laboratories in the Center are the Coal and Fuel Laboratory , the Thermal Analysis Laboratory , the Combustion Laboratory , and the Trace Organics Testing Laboratory . The Materials Characterization Center, with its extensive analytical instrumentation, provides analytical services and research support to faculty and student researchers in the other centers in the Program.
Student support is almost always the first item for which funds are requested in proposals.
The Center members consider the active involvement of students in basic and applied research projects a necessary part of the students' preparation for professional work. More than 110 students have been employed in the Center's laboratories and have gone on to productive professional careers. All other graduates were professionally employed within two months of graduation. The Materials Characterization Center is housed in new facilities at WKU's South Campus.