Faculty and students are typically engaged in the following general areas:

• Mineral processing: fracture characteristics of particles, comminution, mathematical modeling of specific processes, fluid dynamics of specific operations, flotation, surface chemistry, and novel designs.
• Hydrometallurgy: metal extraction, concentration, purification, electrodeposition, and corrosion.
• Pyrometallurgy: thermodynamics, kinetics and modeling of high-temperature chemical processes.
• Physical metallurgy: powder metallurgy, nondestructive metal failure detection, magnetic materials, rapid solidification.
• Synthesis and processing of advanced inorganic materials: nanosized and nanostructured materials, magnetic materials.