Engineering Sections

The National Academy of Engineering is organized in twelve sections representing broad engineering categories; the names and scopes of these sections are below. Members are required to select a primary section affiliation, and may also choose a secondary affiliation.

  • image for Section 01 - Aerospace
    Engineering, development, and system integration of aeronautical, astronautical, and space systems.
  • image for Section 02 - Bioengineering
    Engineering applied to biological or medical systems.
  • image for Section 03 - Chemical
    Engineering of chemical and biological systems from molecular to macroscopic scales to characterize and design materials, processes, and products with enhanced performance, sustainability and value to society.
  • image for Section 04 - Civil & Environmental
    Engineering related to infrastructure systems, natural and built environments, and facilities that require environmental, geotechnical, structural, transportation, construction, water resources, coastal, or ocean engineering.
  • image for Section 05 - Computer Science & Engineering
    Science and engineering of computers, computation, communication, and information, including its impact on other disciplines, society, and individuals.
  • image for Section 06 - Electric Power/Energy Systems
    Engineering and applied sciences associated with the development and use of resources for the generation, storage, delivery, application and conversion of electric energy and power.
  • image for Section 07 - Electronics, Communication & Information Systems
    Engineering applied to devices (electronic, photonic, magnetic and quantum); electronic materials and processing; applied physics; circuit theory; control systems; communication systems; signal processing systems; radiation, propagation and antennas.
  • image for Section 08 - Industrial, Manufacturing & Operational Systems
    Development and use of engineering and analytical methods to describe, analyze, plan, design, manage, and integrate the operations of systems and enterprises that provide services or produce goods for society.
  • image for Section 09 - Materials
    The production, processing, structure and property relationships, and life-cycle performance of materials of engineering significance.
  • image for Section 10 - Mechanical
    Design, control, testing, optimization and manufacturing of mechanical, mechatronic, robotic and thermal/fluid devices and systems.
  • image for Section 11 - Earth Resources
    Engineering applied to the sustainable development and use of planet Earth.
  • image for Section 12 - Special Fields & Interdisciplinary
    Emergent and integrative disciplines offering solutions to inherently complex engineering problems not solved by single disciplines; including agricultural, military and ocean engineering, acoustics, atmospheric and hydrologic sciences, innovation in education and systems engineering and management.