The purpose of the department's graduate program is to provide the guidance and opportunity for students to develop the quantitative skills of engineering and science, and the acumen to apply these skills for the welfare of modern society.  Students in the program naturally have a broad range of interests and career objectives, and it is the philosophy of the department to expose them to a variety of fundamental and applied research problems that will hone those engineering skills necessary in any career, whether in industry, academia or government. 

This involves a combination of graduate core courses in chemical engineering and applied mathematics, advanced science and engineering electives, and independent (thesis) research conducted with the guidance and mentorship of a chemical enginerering faculty member.  (A non-thesis option is also available for the M.Ch.E. degree). 

The Chemical Engineering Department is housed in the newly renovated and expanded Allan P. Colburn Laboratory, a memorial to one of the pioneers in chemical engineering who established the department. The laboratory houses the Center for Catalytic Science and Technology, which is equipped with the modern tools of catalysis and surface science, and the Center for Molecular and Engineering Thermodynamics, whose personnel study a range of thermodynamic problems. Other laboratory facilities are for research in polymer engineering, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, biochemical and biomedical engineering, materials science, metallurgy, photovoltaic systems, mass transfer, and separation processes. The department benefits from close contacts with industrial colleagues in the Delaware Valley-New Jersey heartland of the chemical process industries. An extensive program of visiting scholars brings distinguished engineering scientists from around the world to the campus for periods ranging from a few days to a year. 

Close contact, formal as well as informal, with colleagues in the chemical process and related industries is one of the distinguishing characteristics of the department. Such contact, with corporate leaders as well as practicing engineers and scientists, helps to provide the student with an understanding of the milieu in which the engineer works. Lectures given by these visitors describe the unique opportunities that engineers have to contribute to the quality of life and also the restrictions that society, acting through industry and government, places on technology. 

Extensive facilities for research and graduate study are available within the department. Laboratories specifically devoted to catalysis and reaction engineering house gas chromatographs interfaced with a computer-controlled mass spectrometer, infrared spectrophotometers for surface studies of working catalysts, electron spectrometers for analysis of catalyst surfaces, x-ray diffractometers, transmission and scanning electron microscopes, a laser-Raman spectrometer, an x-ray spectrometer, gas chemisorption equipment, and many catalytic flow microreactors. Many of these studies are carried out in the University's pioneering Center for Catalytic Science and Technology, supported by governmental funds and grants from a group of industrial sponsors. 

Laboratories specifically devoted to polymer engineering are equipped with a rheogoniometer and a mechanical spectrometer, Instron test equipment, x-ray diffractometers, and equipment for spinning and extruding polymers. The polymer engineering group is one of the largest in the country and is deeply involved in the research of Delaware's Center for Composite Materials and in interdisciplinary activity supported by several industrial organizations of the U.S., France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom. 

Biochemical and biomedical engineering laboratories contain a range of fermenters, scintillation counters and other analytical equipment, along with a specially designed pharmacokinetics laboratory. Our studies in industrial toxicology are carried out partly in the department and partly in industrial laboratories providing access to special facilities and experimental techniques. 

The J.A. Gerster Memorial Thermodynamics Laboratories contain equipment for high-pressure and low-pressure vapor-liquid equilibrium, for high-temperature and multiphase equilibrium and other physical property measurements, and for separations processes. These and other facilities are part of the Center for Molecular and Engineering Thermodynamics. 

Laboratories focused on the study of colloids and interfaces contain a variety of spectrometers for quasi-elastic light scattering, fluorescence measurements, and small-angle x-ray scattering. State-of-the-art instruments are available for the measurement of surface tensions, ion activities, and conductivities, as well as for the determination of liquid phase compositions. 

Other laboratories contain a variety of specialized electronic and optical tools for chemical engineering research. Modern problems in two-phase flow, physical metallurgy, corrosion, and pollution abatement, are under study by a variety of full-time and adjunct faculty. 

Several faculty and students are involved in chemical engineering research in photovoltaics in which information needed for the design of large-scale processing units is obtained from laboratory-scale experimentation. Experimental and theoretical studies in photovoltaic unit operations are conducted in a cooperative activity between the department and the Institute of Energy Conversion. 

One of the most rapidly growing aspects of research within the department is process modeling. Research efforts include computer control and modeling of biochemical reactors, development and modeling of novel separations processes, modeling of transport in living systems, modeling and simulation of polymer processes, and elucidation and modeling of reaction pathways of complex fuels and natural resources from petroleum and coal to lignin and biomass. To support the research in chemical engineering analysis, the department maintains its own RISC 6000 computer. Numerous microcomputers are in use in our research laboratories both for data acquisition and modeling; the department also makes extensive use of the University computing facilities described elsewhere in this catalog. 

The minimum requirements for admission to degree programs in the Department of Chemical Engineering are listed below: 

1. A baccalaureate degree in the field or in a closely allied field of science or mathematics. 
2. An undergraduate grade-point average in engineering, science, and mathematics courses of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. 
3. A minimum of three letters of strong support from former teachers or supervisors. 
4. A minimum combined score of 1150 on the Graduate Record Examination Aptitude Test is required of all applicants to the Chemical Engineering Ph.D. program. For the master's program, the GRE test is optional provided the applicant has a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from an ABET approved U.S. institution. 
5. A minimum score of 600 on the Test of English as a Foreign Language for students whose first language is not English and who have not received a degree from a college or university in which English is the sole language of instruction. 

Undergraduate preparation consisting of a bachelor's program in chemical engineering leads most directly into the graduate program. However, students and practicing industrialists with a background in chemistry will also profit from this graduate program, since chemical engineering provides for the application of their scientific skills to solutions of technological problems in industry and society. Graduates of other disciplines are also encouraged to apply; some remedial work may be required and is discussed on an individual basis. 

Please refer to the chapter "Financial Aid" in this catalog. 

To develop the skills that recipients of master's degrees are expected to possess and use effectively, students enroll in courses that sharpen their analytic tools and provide practice in the application of these to engineering problems. Students may also select studies that develop an appreciation for society's constraints on, and opportunities for, science and technology. The M.Ch.E. program is typically elected by students wishing to carry out industrial design analysis or process and product development, and by some students who continue their studies toward the Ph.D. The formal requirements of 24 credit hours of course work and a 6-credit-hour thesis for the M.Ch.E. degree are substantial and are recognized as such by industrial organizations. A non-thesis M.Ch.E. degree of 30 credit hours of appropriate course work is also a degree option in the department. 

Students may elect to study directly toward a Ph.D. upon enrollment or may obtain the M.Ch.E. degree first. Admission to the Ph.D. program in chemical engineering formally requires passing both oral and written qualifying examinations prepared by the department. The written examination is made up of separate examinations in the chemical and the physical sciences. The oral examination includes presentation of a research proposition by the candidate to demonstrate the ability to devise and develop a research idea.