SBIO

What is the Department of Sustainable Biomaterials (SBIO) all about?

For society to solve issues around climate change, species extinction, plastic pollution, and other related issues, graduates must be able to evaluate problems, and solutions, quantitatively and accurately. A Sustainable Biomaterials (SBIO) degree equips students to construct hypotheses, carry out investigations, and interpret data. SBIO students, however, are trained to understand the materials that comprise plants and other sources of biopolymers, and they are trained to understand the nature of renewable, sustainable materials, as well as a circular economy and life cycle assessment. Students in the SBIO degree have some advantages as they explore careers.  Our SBIO degrees can prepare a student to directly enter careers in companies that produce materials that wish to do so more sustainably; these days that would include almost every company that is a materials producer or user. Such careers might entail work in a laboratory or manufacturing area, but they might also entail combining sustainability/materials technical knowledge with the people skills acquired at VT including in experiential learning to be able to interact effectively with customers. At the same time, the skill set developed in SBIO at VT is also good preparation for a STEM graduate degree. Having earned such a graduate degree, students can look forward to a career in industry, academia, government, or beyond, with enhanced independence and responsibility.

This program will give you hands-on experience that remains relevant once you enter the real world. The small class sizes will enable you to develop relationships with your classmates and professors that will last well beyond the graduation stage. The best times I’ve had at Virginia Tech have been because I chose the Packaging program. Learn more about Tyler here.