What is Chemical Engineering?
A chemical engineer applies knowledge to improve industrial processes and products. A chemist works with test tubes, small beakers, or scanning electron microscopes. In contrast, a chemical engineer is involved with large-scale processes and makes products at the rate of tons per day: from gasoline to nylon, paper to penicillin, peanut butter to silicon wafers, and catalytic crackers to beer.
As a chemical engineer, you combine chemistry and applied mathematics with engineering know-how in jobs that range from product development, process design and manufacturing to quality control, pollution reduction, marketing, and technical sales. Each step of the way, you use your skills as a chemist, a mathematician, and an engineer.
Career choices
Clarkson Chemical Engineering graduates are highly sought in industry, government and academic institutions. Their quality is reflected by high starting salaries, which last year averaged about $50,000. They work in sectors that include: production of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, plastics and other synthetics; petroleum refining; engineering design and construction; equipment manufacture; nuclear energy; pollution control; energy onservation; bio-engineering and microelectronics.
Many chemical engineering graduates move on to advanced degree study, medical or dental school, or law school.
Why Clarkson for Chemical Engineering?
U.S. News & World Report ranks Clarkson in its 2006 Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs at schools whose highest degree is a Ph.D. The placement rate for our chemical engineers is one of the nation's highest. Our graduates are sought both for their strong technical skills and their versatility. A Clarkson engineering education builds your abilities in teamwork, management, communication and creative problem solving. Our graduates are accepted in the best advanced degree programs in the country, including our own. Among them: Cal Tech, MIT, Princeton, Georgia Tech, and University of Rochester Medical School.
A teaching emphasis in a research environment
Clarkson combines two distinctive strengths that benefit students: Personalized teaching and high-powered research.
With a 16:1 faculty-to-student ratio, our professors get to know students as individuals. On the other hand, these faculty members are also inspired explorers on the very frontiers of knowledge. They conduct world-class research in areas of vital importance — and involve undergraduates as well as graduate students in the process!
Project-based learning
Clarkson takes a project-based approach to learning. Because you focus on the creative application of knowledge and skills to solve practical, real-world problems, you gain:
- a strong, hands-on foundation in the basics
- teamwork and leadership skills
- practice in creative problem solving
- techniques in research and analysis
- skills in applying what you know
And at all levels, you enjoy the individualized attention that only an undergraduate-centered school can provide.
A curriculum with breadth and depth
Few programs elsewhere offer the strong technical base in Chemical Engineering that Clarkson does. You learn the fundamentals of heat transfer, fluid mechanics, and thermodynamics from a Chemical Engineering perspective, and you can choose among more than 60 related courses.
With an emphasis on applied math, engineering, and chemistry, you will broaden your professional background with courses in history, ethics, and communications. The bottom line: Clarkson graduates in Chemical Engineering possess the following qualities: technical competence; skills in critical thinking and communication; a strong set of ethical values and a desire to perform a productive role in society.
Concentration in biomolecular engineering
This concentration was created especially for chemical engineering majors who desire a stronger background in biochemical engineering and biology. It will benefit students pursuing careers in medicine, biomedical engineering or in any of the following industries: consumer products, food processing and pharmaceuticals. Course requirements for this concentration include Cellular and Molecular Biology, Biochemical Engineering, and Biochemistry. The decision to obtain this concentration is made optimally in the sophomore year.
Professional specializations
Each student should develop an area of professional specialization through electives. You may wish to select a group of courses for an academic minor in Chemistry or Mathematics, or a professional concentration in Biomolecular, Materials or Environmental Engineering.
Chemical Engineering research areas
Clarkson professors work closely with industry and government on exciting and important research.
Current topics include:
- polymer fabrication
- chemical mechanical polishing
- adaptive and process control systems
- applied convective transport processes
- nucleation theory
- motion studies in capillary, bubble, and drop dynamics
- fuel cell technology
- air pollution monitoring
- crystal growth
- process intensification
Undergraduate research
Chemical Engineering majors participate in a wide range of research projects funded by the National Science Foundation and other government and corporate sources.
Recent student projects include:
- Modeling Analysis to Determine Source Locations for Air Particles
- Creep in Injection Molded Parts
- Modeling Fuel Cell Performance
What kinds of equipment can I use?
You'll have access to modern laboratory equipment, including:
- crystal growth labs
- distillation columns
- electronic fabrication
- injection molding machines
- double effect evaporator
- polymer fabrication and processing
- laser light-scattering particle counters
Multidisciplinary undergraduate labs
As a Clarkson engineering student, you'll benefit from our Multidisciplinary Engineering and Project Laboratory, which facilitates team-based experiences and projects. And you'll also use our Engineering Computer and Design Lab complex.
Center for Advanced Materials Processing
CAMP (Center for Advanced Materials Processing) has 70 state-of-the-art labs for research and has been designated by the State of New York as a Center of Advanced Technology.
Co-ops and internships
A summer or a semester of professional employment is the best way to get an overview of what a career will be like. Through our Career Center, you can arrange a co-op or internship, earn money, gain valuable experience, and still graduate in four years.
Companies who hire our chemical engineers
Those hiring Chemical Engineering graduates include: Anheuser-Busch, Corning, ExxonMobil, Foxboro, General Electric, IBM, Praxair and Procter & Gamble
