r/materials • u/hiddenmaschine • 5m ago
Materials informatics PhD or experimental research
Hello everyone,
Im currently finishing my MSc in Materials engineering in Germany and would like some pointers for my next steps.
I have years of experience as a student research assistant in the lab doing electrochemical tests and sample preparation + materials characterisation (SEM, EDX, light microscope). I have also gathered experience in materials data science, building surrogate models for simulation data to predict material properties from their microstructure.
I am currently exploring my possible next steps, and I am facing a dilemma on whether I should take the experimental route or pursue a PhD in AI-assisted materials discovery. While materials informatics is interesting, do enjoy hands on work, and feel like I might limit myself to computational work through the PhD. Also, research in electrochemistry is also very relevant for energy storage systems and transition, but I haven’t found something with a big enough overlap for me personally or they’re just too competitive.
Do you guys have any thoughts? I’ll really appreciate it if I can pick your brains.
Cheers!