What would you suggest as a good introduction to materials science? (Prior usage and examples would be wonderful, my particular focus is neutron scattering).
What I've Found So Far:
I'd be inclined to recommend a good solid state physics book, like Chaikin & Lubensky for scattering, and there are other topics that are probably not so bad for a materials scientist to have under their belt, presented in the kind of extreme-simplified "spherical cow" approach that physicists cherish.
But if you're looking specifically for something the Materials Science majors typically read, then yeah, Callister is pretty popular.
EDIT It's also worth mentioning that for individual topics, there are usually reviews and pedagogical papers that cover the material better than any textbook. For neutron scattering, my first exposure was a short review called "Neutron Scattering - A Primer". Now I see that the entire issue of the magazine it was in was dedicated to neutrons and is free online.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/doe/lanl/pubs/number19.htm
So I hope this helps!
You might want to target a book on $Characterization Methods$ also.
John Hudson out of RPI taught an excellent course which was right to the point, but I don't know if he ever published the materials. I'm sure there are books that survey the field.
