Ultimately, the role of chemical engineers is to apply chemistry, especially biological, organic, and inorganic chemistry. Applying chemistry provides the gasoline, safe drugs, shampoo, textiles, plastics, computer chips, paints, and so many things that make up our everyday lives. To make all these things, chemical engineers combine chemistry, mathematics, physics, biology, economics, management, and computer science. These elements are used together to analyze and design systems, including chemical processes and products.
At UMass Amherst, undergraduate and graduate students learn how to apply sciences to manufacture this "stuff of life" while building the analytical and innovation skills needed to create new solutions. Lectures, computer use, problem-solving in and out of class, laboratory experiences, and intense discussion are all parts of this challenging major. Going beyond the traditional educational environment, our students hone their skills in a model computer classroom and in research supervised by the faculty.
Throughout the world, UMass Chemical Engineering is particularly known for four areas:
Multiscale systems analysis and design
Materials science and engineering, including polymers
Molecular and materials modeling
Cellular and metabolic bioengineering
In this website, you will find key information about all aspects of the department, including our faculty and their research interests as well as our teaching programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. For prospective students, links are provided to detailed information about our undergraduate/graduate programs and admissions procedures. Come to UMass and see!
Research Team Publishes Paper on New Cancer Therapy Neil Forbes, Chemical Engineering Department, and his research team packed with undergraduate chemical engineering students have published a paper about a new cancer therapy in a prominent journal. The article was accepted in the High-level journal Lab on a Chip and is entitled “A multipurpose microfluidic device designed to mimic microenvironment gradients and develop targeted cancer therapeutics,” by undergrads Colin L. Walsh, Brett M. Babin, Jean A. Foster, Marissa J. McGarry, graduate student Rachel W. Kasinskas, and Dr. Forbes. Read more
Mountziaris Does "Frontier Study" on Quantum Dots A research team led by T.J. Mountziaris, Professor and Head of Chemical Engineering at UMass Amherst and Director of the UMass NanoMedicine Institute, has published a paper in Applied Physics Letters that has been called “frontier research” by the editors of several prestigious journals in the field of Nanotechnology. Their paper with title "Dilution effects on the photoluminescence of ZnSe quantum-dot dispersions" was featured in the September 8, 2008, issue of the Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science & Technology. Read more
Huber Speaks at NSF Briefing George Huber, a researcher at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is one of three experts invited to speak this week in Washington at a National Science Foundation briefing on “green gasoline,” or any alternative fuel made from plant material. On Tuesday, Sept. 23, Huber, the Armstrong Professional Development Professor of chemical engineering at UMass Amherst, briefed national media on details of how “green gasoline” is made and also took part in a panel discussion at NSF headquarters. A similar event for congressional staffers was planned for the following day on Capitol Hill. The other featured speakers were John Regalbuto, professor of chemical engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago and director of the NSF’s Catalysis and Biocatalysis Program, Randy Cortright, CTO of Virent Energy Systems of Madison, Wisc., and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry. Read more
Fox News Airs Huber’s Biofuel Research The biofuels research of George Huber of the Chemical Engineering Department was featured in a three-minute piece on Fox 25 News in Boston on August 7. Dr. Huber spent the year juggling a three-ring circus of extraordinary accomplishments. First, he was named the Armstrong Professional Development Professor. Then he chaired a national workshop in Washington entitled “Breaking the Chemical and Engineering Barriers to Lignocellulosic Biofuels” that was attended by 71 top scientists in the field. One outcome from that workshop was the production and distribution of a so-called “roadmap” publication to provide the nation with a clear-cut blueprint for making sustainable fuels an economic reality. Then, to top off his momentous year, Dr. Huber received a coveted CAREER Award of $400,000 from the National Science Foundation to study his revolutionary new method for producing environmentally friendly “green gasoline.”
ChE Newsletter Archive 2006 >Spring | Fall
2007 > Spring | Fall
Fox News Airs Huber’s Biofuel Research The biofuels research of George Huber of the Chemical Engineering Department was featured in a three-minute piece on Fox 25 News in Boston on August 7. Dr. Huber spent the year juggling a three-ring circus of extraordinary accomplishments. First, he was named the Armstrong Professional Development Professor. Then he chaired a national workshop in Washington entitled “Breaking the Chemical and Engineering Barriers to Lignocellulosic Biofuels” that was attended by 71 top scientists in the field. One outcome from that workshop was the production and distribution of a so-called “roadmap” publication to provide the nation with a clear-cut blueprint for making sustainable fuels an economic reality. Then, to top off his momentous year, Dr. Huber received a coveted CAREER Award of $400,000 from the National Science Foundation to study his revolutionary new method for producing environmentally friendly “green gasoline.”