 The relationship between materials and engineering is as old as the first stone tools created by our ancestors. The closeness of this relationship is reflected in how periods throughout human history are defined – the stone age, the bronze age, the iron age, the steel age and the silicon age. Materials as we experience them in our everyday lives have typically already been processed into their final form. But if we were able to pull materials and engineering apart for just a moment, we would reveal an intricate web in which the rapid evolution of materials, their synthesis shaping and performance, and the needs of society are all interconnected. This issue of MRS Bulletin does exactly that. The materials landscape is complex and rapidly expanding. To get a sense of how rapidly materials have recently evolved, compare the number of materials available from prehistoric times up to the 1800s with the number of materials available today. Up until the Industrial Revolution, the materials available to engineers likely numbered in the few hundreds. Today, this number stands at about 160,000. This ever-expanding smorgasbord of materials has revolutionised the way we travel, the way we obtain energy, and the way we inform and interact with one another. Advancements in structural materials such as composites and aluminum titanium and nickel-based alloys have enhanced the performance of aircraft and their propulsion systems, allowing planes to go longer between major maintenance procedures and to remain in the air for up to 20 hours. In the realm of nuclear power, understanding the effects of radioactive bombardment on the behaviour of different materials has enabled scientists and engineers to develop increasingly robust nuclear reactors. Moving toward the nanoscale, the convergence of physics, chemistry and metallurgy has allowed the silicon age to flourish, paving the way for innovations in microelectronics, quantum computing, carbon nanomaterials, polymeric biomaterials and energy storage materials. While it may appear that we've reached a point where materials can be easily designed and tailored to meet society's core for stronger, better tools, the relationship between the discovery of new materials, the science that underlies them, and final product design is not straightforward. Historically, the development of new materials has been a story of engineering leading science, of trial and error application before full-fledged theory. For example, the reason why the aluminum alloy in the engine the Wright brothers used in their historic first flight in 1903 was so well suited for aerospace applications wasn't entirely clear until 1909, when Alfred Wulm serendipitously discovered the precipitation hardening process. A faster cycle for the discovery of new materials, their development and applications by increasing the use of modeling and simulations is emerging through an integrated computational approach to materials engineering. Such an integrated approach will be useful to develop new materials and products to balance the needs of a growing population with a scarcity of resources and environmental concerns. The bond between materials and engineering is truly intimate and intricate and as highlighted throughout this issue of MRS Bulletin, it is embedded with the promise of new materials, processes and designs for the betterment of society.