The discipline of materials science and engineering has a long history, and the three secondary disciplines covered by materials science and engineering can be traced back to the beginning of university building. With the establishment of metallographic heat treatment, physical inspection and steel rolling majors in 1952, foundry major in 1952, metallurgical physical chemistry major in 1957, and metal corrosion major in 1977, the material disciplineconstantly grew and developed.In 1971, new materials research accounted for 20 of the 23 scientific research projects of Beijing Institute of Iron and Steel, which laid a solid foundation for the development of the first-level disciplines of materials science and engineering. In January 1984, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Metallurgy and the Beijing Municipal Party Committee approved the establishment of the Beijing Institute of Iron and Steel, and the department of Metal Materials and the department of Metal Pressure Processing were formally established. In July 1988, the State Education Commission issued a notice that six doctoral programs of the University of Science and Technology Beijing, including metal physics, metal materials and heat treatment (including powder metallurgy), and pressure processing, were rated as national key disciplines. The School of Materials Science and Engineering was formally established in October 1996 and was one of the first three colleges established by the University. It was formed by the merger of the foundry teaching and research sections of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, the Department of Metal Pressure Processing, the Department of Surface Science and Corrosion Engineering, and the Department of Metallurgy. Professor Yongning Yu was the dean and Chenguang Fu was the secretary of the party committee.

In December 1998, the Department of Materials Physics and the Department of Physical Chemistry of the Faculty of Applied Sciences merged into the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, and the Department of Materials Physics, Metallic Materials, Inorganic Nonmetallic Materials, Functional Materials and Surface Technology Department of Powder Materials, Department of Surface Science and Corrosion Engineering, Department of Metal Pressure Processing, and Foundry Research Institutewere established. In March 2001, 8 departments (institutes) were re-integrated into 4 departments, 2 institutes and 2 centers, including the Department of Materials Science, Materials Processing and Control Engineering, Materials Physics and Chemistry, Inorganic Non-metallic Materials, Powder Metallurgy, Functional Materials, Corrosion and Protection Center, and the experimental testing center.In December 2008, according to the University development plan, the Institute of Advanced Materials and Technology was established with 2 institutes and 2 centers from the School of Materials Science as the mainstay.