November 20, 2003

Importance of biology in chemical engineering spurs name change

The department of chemical engineering has changed its name to the department of chemical and biological engineering to more accurately reflect the roles of both chemistry and biology in the department’s academic offerings and research.

“The importance of biology in chemical engineering has been recognized by a wide range of chemical engineering departments, including our own,” said department chair William Miller. “Our new name emphasizes the similar roles of chemistry and biology in our discipline. It is important to emphasize that we have broadened our base by adding biological aspects to our program, rather than de-emphasizing other areas of chemical engineering.”

“Chemical engineers defined and used the terms ‘biochemical engineering’ and ‘biotechnology and bioengineering’ long before they became fashionable,” said Miller. “Chemical engineers have been involved in the engineering of processes for the production of chemicals, biologicals and pharmaceuticals from living organisms since the beginning of the 20th century.”

In recent years biology has grown rapidly and more broadly in importance in the field of chemical engineering. Biology has now joined chemistry and physics as a core science for chemical engineering research and practice. The department recently incorporated a biology requirement for all chemical engineering undergraduates and now offers an undergraduate Certificate in Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering. A professional Masters in Biotechnology program makes its debut in fall 2004.

As biological research has become increasingly molecular and quantitative, the modeling and quantitative skills developed by chemical engineers for chemical and physical systems now can be adapted to solve important biological problems. This complements more traditional biochemical engineering research, as well as research carried out in the University’s biomedical engineering department.

Two-thirds of the chemical and biological engineering department’s faculty have a biological focus for at least part of their research, and more than half of the research carried out in the department is based on the life sciences. This research ranges from applications of molecular and cell biology to bioinformatics and systems biology and spans length scales from the design of biomimetic molecules through the synthesis of scaffolds for tissue engineering to the analysis of entire ecosystems.