Recognizing that the performance of engineering systems is limited by the availability of suitable materials, the Graduate Program in Materials Science of the Military Engineering Institute is based on the idea that the complex technological problems which Brazil is facing can be solved through the development of high quality human resources and international level research programs in the field of materials.

The Graduate Program in Materials Science was created in 1969 and the first thesis was defended in 1972. The progam arose from IME's Metallurgical Engineering course, which started in 1938. In the 1960s, Brazil already had a substantial industrial park and the interest of the Brazilian Army turned to the development of materials subjected to extreme conditions, such at usually happens to materials for military use. This class of materials comprises steels of very high mechanical resistance and the interest of Army lays in the fact that they are used in armored vehicles. When these materials are in service, properties such as hardness, toughness and tensile strength must be adequate for ballistic protection. At this time, a favorable scenario emerged for the creation of a graduate program in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, since there was a demand from the Army and from the countless industries that were established in the state. This was the environment that led the Metallurgical Engineering course to become, in fact, a Materials Engineering course and that provided the basis for creation of the Graduate Program in Materials Science. 

The academic production of the Program has gradually increased. Up to December 2020, 308 master's theses and 134 doctoral dissertations were defended. To disseminate the results of important research carried out in the area of ​​Materials Science and Engineering, 2139 papers were published in national and international scientific journals and several works were presented at conferences in Brazil and abroad, resulting in 1110 papers in conference proceedings and book chapters.

The Program has four Lines of Research: Ceramic Materials, Electronic Materials, Metallic Materials e Polymeric Materials, under a single Area of Concentration, Physical Properties and Mechanical Behavior of Materials. The content of each line is frequently updated with new projects, which are incorporated as new technological challenges and demands arise in the military and civil sectors. The Program has always acted in a dual way, exploring scientific themes common to the two sectors of our society.