The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering conducts undergraduate and graduate programs of teaching and research that focus on the areas of biomolecular engineering, systems engineering, and advanced materials processing and span the general themes of energy/environment and nanoengineering. Aside from the fundamentals of chemical engineering (thermodynamics, transport phenomena, kinetics, reactor engineering and separations), particular emphasis is given to metabolic engineering, protein engineering, synthetic biology, bio-nano-technology, biomaterials, air pollution, environmental modeling, pollution prevention, molecular simulation, process systems engineering, membrane science, semiconductor processing, chemical vapor deposition, plasma processing, and polymer engineering.
Students are trained in the fundamental principles of these fields while acquiring sensitivity to society’s needs — a crucial combination needed to address the challenge of continued industrial growth and innovation in an era of economic, environmental, and energy constraints.
The undergraduate curriculum leads to a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Chemical Engineering and includes the standard core curriculum, as well as biomedical engineering, biomolecular engineering, environmental engineering, and semiconductor manufacturing engineering options. The department also offers graduate courses and research leading to Master of Science (MS) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees. Both graduate and undergraduate programs closely relate teaching and research to important industrial problems.
Chemical and biomolecular engineering assistant professor Dante A. Simonetti sets up a packed bed reactor.