Formally established as a separate department in 1920, MIT’s Chemical Engineering department (ChemE) has not only set the standard for instruction and research in the field, it continues to redefine the discipline’s frontiers. With one of three undergraduate programs focusing on chemical-biological engineering for students interested in the emerging biotech and life sciences industries, and two of three graduate programs providing an experiential course of study in chemical engineering practice in collaboration with MIT’s Sloan School of Management, ChemE at MIT is quite unlike chemical engineering anywhere else.
MIT ChemE Facts & Figures
- For 2024-25, for 36 consecutive years, US News & World Report gave its top rankings to both our graduate and undergraduate programs among the nation’s chemical engineering departments.
- For 2024-25, for the 13th straight year, MIT Chemical Engineering has been ranked first in the world by QS World University Rankings.
- More than 10% of our alumni are senior executives of industrial companies.
- More than 10% of the nation’s teachers of chemical engineering earned one or more degrees from MIT.
- Nearly 25% of the recipients of major awards presented by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the American Chemical Society’s Murphree Award have been alumni or faculty of MIT.
- The MIT ChemE current and emeriti faculty includes 16 members of the National Academy of Engineering, five members of the National Academy of Science, and nine members of the Academy of Arts and Sciences. [See list]
- Three of our faculty members, Paula T. Hammond, Arup K. Chakraborty, and Robert S. Langer, hold the esteemed title of Institute Professor, MIT’s highest faculty honor.
- Of the nearly 100 chemical engineers elected to the National Academy of Engineering, 20% have been alumni or faculty.
- Several ChemE Faculty have written many seminal texts still being used in chemical engineering education today. [See list]