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Packaging Science and Materials

A professor uses a stress machine

Packaging science and materials in a concentration that provides a deep dive into packaging materials, the manufacturing processes, and interaction between packaging materials and products.

Packaging materials include:

  • Traditional plastics
  • Sustainable bioplastics
  • Corrugated
  • Paper and paperboard
  • Metals 
  • Glass

The packaging program at Virginia Tech offers courses that thoroughly examine materials, machinery, and manufacturing processes, and how they interact with goods in transit.

Successful completion of the courses in this area of packaging enables students to enter such business sectors as:

  • Packaging material companies (such as plastic, chemical, paper, metal, and glass based companies) as material scientists
  • Consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies as packaging engineers
  • Packaging converting companies as production or packaging engineers

In this area, the average starting salaries of new graduates are $65,000 to $85,000 based on a recent alumni salary survey.

Transfer Credits:

The Packaging Systems and Design degree offers a lot of flexibility for transfer students to personalize their education while also allowing them to graduate on time. Our 32 free elective credits allow students to transfer in classes that they have already taken and count them towards their graduation progress. This allows many students to graduate on time even after changing their major.

Example courses:

  • SBIO 3284 – Packaging Polymers and Productions
  • SBIO 4214 – Food and Health Care Packaging
  • SBIO 3214 – Paper and Paperboard Packaging