AbstractThe development of new materials has generally been a trial‐and‐error process, which is often long and costly. Computational materials science has progressed to the point that it is being embraced by materials engineering as a key part of the materials development process. Often referred to as integrated computational materials engineering, this new approach links computation with experiment and data to enhance and accelerate materials development. An important component of this integrated approach is materials informatics, in which advanced mining and analysis techniques are applied to experimental and model‐based data as one step of an information‐based process for understanding and exploring materials behavior. Here, we will discuss how, as bioinformatics does in biology, materials informatics offers a new approach to materials research and development. Copyright © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company