In the early 1960s, activity in the field of materials engineering began within the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. A lecturer named Ariel Taub from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering established a laboratory that included an optical microscope, a table with a polishing and cooking device and one oven, which formed the basis of today’s Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering. In 1962 the Institute of Metals was officially established and in 1968 the Department of Materials Engineering was established in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. In 1980, the department became an independent unit at the Technion, which awarded only graduate degrees – master’s and doctorates. In 1994, with the opening of a bachelor’s degree course, the department became the Faculty of Materials Engineering. Dan Shechtman, a faculty member, won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2011.