Electronic materials constitutes a sub-field of materials. Therefore the issues raised concerning an electronic materials education must necessarily be viewed in the broader context of a comprehensive materials education. Yet electronic materials do differ from other subfields in several ways.

First, unlike the traditional metals, ceramics and polymers, which are defined primarily by chemical composition, electronic materials are defined by functions, i.e., they are used in devices that provide electronic functions. As such, electronic materials encompass metals, ceramics, and polymers as well as semiconductors.

Second, workers employed in electronic materials industries come from a diverse set of academic disciplines. They are physicists, chemists, chemical engineers, electrical engineers, and mechanical engineers as well as metallurgists, ceramists, and materials science and engineering (MSE) graduates. Thus activities in the electronic materials industries represent an extreme case of interdisciplinary activity which is characteristic of MSE.

Third, the electronic materials industries play a dominant role in world economy today and the technology is changing at a dizzying pace. Thus issues in education in electronic materials become more challenging than other subfields and may require fresh and nontraditional approaches.

When speaking of electronic materials, one generally thinks of semiconductors, such as silicon and more recently gallium arsenide, that are used in microelectronic devices.