MATE 664 Kinetics of Materials

Course Information

Course Number: MATE 664
Instructor: Dr. Tian Tian
Semester: Winter 2026
Office: DICE 12-245
Office Hour: by appointment

Course Description

MAT E 664 is a graduate-level core course for Materials Engineering students, and is also relevant to graduate students in Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry, and related disciplines interested in kinetic and transport phenomena in materials.

The course introduces the fundamental theory of irreversible thermodynamics and key concepts from statistical mechanics to explain driving forces and rates of non-equilibrium processes. Emphasis is placed on both theoretical and numerical approaches, with examples drawn from hard and soft materials systems.

By the end of the course, students will develop a unified perspective on modeling processes such as phase transformations, nucleation, diffusion, sintering, and aggregation.

Textbook

Our primary textbooks for this course are listed below. (Cover images are linked externally and are not stored in this repository.)

R. W. Balluffi, S. M. Allen, W. C. Carter Kinetics of Materials (Wiley)

Access link (requires UofA login)

John C. Mauro Materials Kinetics: Transport and Rate Phenomena (Elsevier)

Access link (requires UofA login)

Additional references

Additional readings (papers, review articles, and supplementary notes) will be posted throughout the term (on our website and Canvas) as the course progresses.

Lecture Notes

Thanks to recent developments in scientific typesetting and interactive computing enabled by tools such as Quarto and Marimo, the course materials are presented in different ways. You can view the course notes in the following ways:

Directly browsing the webpage of individual lectures
Open the slide presentations for lectures (powered by reveal.js)

In either way we have included interactive demonstrations of some numerical solution to a few key problems, and we hope you enjoy reading and interacting with the course materials!

📙Access all lectures here:
Lecture notes and slides

--- title: MATE 664 Kinetics of Materials format: html toc: false --- ## Course Information - **Course Number**: MATE 664 - **Instructor**: Dr. Tian Tian - **Semester**: Winter 2026 - **Office**: DICE 12-245 - **Office Hour**: by appointment ## Course Description MAT E 664 is a graduate-level core course for Materials Engineering students, and is also relevant to graduate students in Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry, and related disciplines interested in kinetic and transport phenomena in materials. The course introduces the fundamental theory of irreversible thermodynamics and key concepts from statistical mechanics to explain driving forces and rates of non-equilibrium processes. Emphasis is placed on both theoretical and numerical approaches, with examples drawn from hard and soft materials systems. By the end of the course, students will develop a unified perspective on modeling processes such as phase transformations, nucleation, diffusion, sintering, and aggregation. ## Textbook Our primary textbooks for this course are listed below. (Cover images are linked externally and are **not** stored in this repository.) 1) **R. W. Balluffi, S. M. Allen, W. C. Carter** *Kinetics of Materials* (Wiley) ![](https://books.google.com/books/content?id=aKKX_yVlBZMC&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&source=gbs_api){width=100} - [Access link (requires UofA login)](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/0471749311) 2) **John C. Mauro** *Materials Kinetics: Transport and Rate Phenomena* (Elsevier) ![](https://dynamic.indigoimages.ca/v1/books/books/0128239077/1.jpg){width=100} - [Access link (requires UofA login)](https://search.library.ualberta.ca/view/action/uresolver.do?operation=resolveService&package_service_id=13025963840009116&institutionId=9116&customerId=9115&VE=true) ### Additional references Additional readings (papers, review articles, and supplementary notes) will be posted throughout the term (on our website and Canvas) as the course progresses. ## Lecture Notes Thanks to recent developments in scientific typesetting and interactive computing enabled by tools such as [**Quarto**](https://quarto.org) and [**Marimo**](https://docs.marimo.io), the course materials are presented in different ways. You can view the course notes in the following ways: - Directly browsing the webpage of individual lectures - Open the slide presentations for lectures (powered by `reveal.js`) In either way we have included interactive demonstrations of some numerical solution to a few key problems, and we hope you enjoy reading and interacting with the course materials! 📙**Access all lectures here:** [Lecture notes and slides](lectures/)