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2026 - 2027 Graduate Student Handbook 

Chemical Engineering, MSE, PhD

Areas of Study

Biochemical and biomedical engineering. Protein and nucleic acid engineering, metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, systems biology, bioinformatics, fermentations, genetic engineering technology, mammalian tissue culture, biomaterials, biosensors, biomolecular interactions, cell and tissue engineering, virus removal from blood, hemodialysis.

Chemical engineering fundamentals. Kinetics and catalysts, thermodynamics, transport phenomena.

Energy resources. Secondary and tertiary oil recovery, flow processes in porous media, acid gas treating, energy control and efficiency, photovoltaics, battery technology.

Environmental engineering and sustainability. Air pollution measurements, modeling and control, air pollutant and chemical exposures, atmospheric chemistry.

Materials and processes for microelectronics. Plasma processing, etching, chemical vapor deposition, selective laser sintering, supermolecular self-assembly and organization, colloidal systems, mesoscopic materials.

Meso- and molecular-scale modeling and simulation. Statistical and micromechanical modeling and Monte Carlo, Brownian, and molecular dynamics simulations of reactions, complex fluids, polymers, and biological molecules.

Polymer engineering. Synthesis; processing; reaction injection molding; properties, with specific emphasis on blends, transport, and thermodynamic behavior; membranes; microelectronics; thin film; composition.

Process engineering. Chemical reaction engineering and catalyst development; optimization; process simulation, dynamics, and control; fault detection, rheology and simulation of suspensions.

Separations. Membrane separations, distillation, absorption, supercritical extraction.

Other areas. Aerosol science, surface phenomena, crystal chemistry and physical properties, electrochemistry, electronic and optical materials, electrical impedance tomography.