The Berkeley MSSE degree prepares students for careers in computational science, data science, machine learning, and software engineering. The program is designed to train students with backgrounds in chemistry, physics, biology, computer science, or from other physical science disciplines. The MSSE provides students with the tools, software engineering practices, plus leadership, management, and entrepreneurial skills needed to create or lead science- or engineering-based enterprises.
While the MSSE degree focuses on the molecular sciences, the skills it provides are suitable for any student pursuing careers both in science and or non-science based industries that require advanced machine learning, complex mathematical modeling and simulations, software engineering, or high-performance computing.
Explore Careers with MSSE
With its focus on Computational Molecular Science, MSSE prepares you for Software Engineering, Data Science, Machine Learning, and Research Scientist roles in high-demand fields such as Computational Chemistry, Cheminformatics, Computational Biology and Biochemistry, Bioinformatics, Computational Physics, Computational Material Science, Quantum Computational Chemistry, Nanotechnology, and other Computational Science fields.
Computational Scientist
Average Starting Salary $157,000
Machine Learning Engineer
Average Starting Salary $149,742
Software Engineer
Average Starting Salary $144,144
Computational Chemist
Average Starting Salary $107,168
AI Engineer
Average Starting Salary $119,930
Bioinformatics Engineer
Average Starting Salary $145,573
Simulation and Modeling Engineer
Average Starting Salary $142,900
Computational Neuroscientist
Average Starting Salary $158,656
Transform Science-Based Industries
Biotech & Pharmaceutical
$3.8 Trillion
- Drug discovery and new therapeutics
- Vaccine development
- Individualized medicines
- Improved testing and screening
Materials
$1.9 Trillion
- Renewable bioplastics
- Reliable, durable materials for renewables
- Biocompatible materials
Energy
$3.5 Trillion
- Renewable energy & biofuels
- Eco-friendly materials & chemical processes
- Improved solar cells
- New battery technologies
Food & Agriculture
$1 Trillion
- Food and water security
- Decarbonizing the synthesis of chemical feedstocks
- New water treatment technologies
Semiconductors
$1.9 Trillion
- Developing advanced semi-conductor materials
- Thermal condoctivity improvements
- Improving yield and cost
Aerospace
$.7 Trillion
- Lighter, stronger, more durable materials
- Superalloys and exotic materials
- Shape memory and superelastic alloys
Recent Alumni Job Titles
- AI Software Engineer
- Bioinformatics Scientist
- Computational Biologist
- Data Scientist
- Developer Advocate
- Electrical Software Engineer
- Engineering Manager
- Operations Manager
- PhD in Biochemistry
- PhD in Pharmacology
- Principal Scientist
- Senior Data Engineer
- Software Engineer
- Supercharger Product Engineer
Recent Alumni Employers
Career Support
MSSE students have access to UC Berkeley career counseling through the Career Center and professional development planning through GradPro.
Students get direct Career experience in their capstone project. Working with our partner companies and labs, students solve problems in computational science.