Welcome to the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington (UW). We emphasize education and research that thoroughly integrates molecular design and nanoscale principles with the continuum and system-level foundations of the discipline.

Graduates find employment and create companies in a variety of fields, including electronics, pharmaceuticals, environmental engineering, as well as the oil, chemical, forest products, and other manufacturing industries. Our graduates are executives at Fortune 500 companies, founders of high technology growth companies, and professors in top departments. New knowledge produced by our students and faculty has impacted society through the development of the home kidney dialysis machine, improved organic light emitting diodes, and non-fouling coatings for biomedical devices and ship hulls.

As you will see looking through the website, there are many recent events that make us proud. Our department has been vigorously reworking the undergraduate curriculum and just launched a new degree option called Nanoscience and Molecular Engineering (NME). Though developed by the department under Professor Overney's leadership, the NME degree option also can be taken by students in other departments.

Research in Professor Jiang's group has investigated the extraordinary properties of zwitterionic thin films for creating surfaces that do not foul over time. A dozen patents have been filed, several are licensed, and Prof. Jiang founded Zwitter Technologies, LLC, to accelerate the commercial success of zwitterionic coatings.

Finally, we were delighted to learn during the year that two of our Ph.D. graduates received prestigious CAREER Awards from the National Science Foundation in 2010.

Chemical Engineering at the UW is developing the people, knowledge, and enterprises needed to support a vibrant technology-based society.

- Daniel T. Schwartz