Chemical Engineering
From growing and regenerating tissues to measuring the speed of climate change and dimensions of planets, the province of chemical engineering research is virtually limitless. The chemical engineering community at MIT is responsible for countless scientific advances, including controlled drug delivery, which improves the body’s ability to combat illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, and depression. Our recent contributions range from engineering a yeast strain capable of increasing the efficiency of ethanol production to building the most sensitive electronic detector of deadly gases ever made.
Research in the department focuses on fundamental knowledge and applied technologies in the following areas:
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Thermodynamics and molecular computation
Covers the many aspects of classical and statistical thermodynamics, including the application of quantum mechanics to catalyst design, the behavior of complex fluids, protein stabilization, and the nucleation and crystallization of pharmaceuticals.
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Transport processes
Researches transport phenomena such as polymer molecular theory and processing, membrane separations, diffusion in complex fluids, microfluidics, and transport in living tissue.
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Catalysis and chemical reaction engineering
Conducts studies in catalyst design, complex chemical synthesis, bioreactor design, surface- and gas-phase chemistry, the miniaturization of reactors, and much more.
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Polymers
Explores topics including polymerization kinetics, non-Newtonian rheology, block copolymers, liquid crystalline polymers, nanocomposites and nanofibers, and self-assembly and patterning.
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Materials
Studies range from plasma etching and thin-film chemical vapor deposition to crystal growth, molecular simulation, and soft tissue regeneration.
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Surfaces and nanostructures
Includes the study of colloids, emulsions, surfactants, thin films, liquid crystals, sol-gel processing, control of pharmaceutical morphology, and surface patterning.
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Biological engineering
Covers protein purification, metabolic processes, tissue regeneration, gene regulation, bioprocesses, bioinformatics, biomaterials, drug delivery, and more.
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Energy and environmental engineering
Encompasses studies in combustion, renewable energy, non-conventional fuels, carbon dioxide capture, water purification, air pollution modeling, and novel energy conversion processes.
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Systems design and simulation
Develops methodologies for process and product modeling and simulation, computer-aided engineering, operations research, optimization theory, treatment of uncertainty, and multiscale systems engineering.
