Chemical Engineering Research
The UW Department of Chemical Engineering maintains a world-class research program with four major focus areas: biotechnology, nanotechnology, computer simulations, and sustainable energy. Chemical engineering takes a systems approach to problems, so each one of these areas represents a part in one or more systems of application. The nature of the research spans the full spectrum: from molecular level, fundamental research to applied research for end-use products.
Click on a faculty member's name to learn more about that person's research.
The department has over 20,000 square feet of research space supported by a fully equipped machine shop, electronics shop, and computer shop. Major research laboratories include the Microscale Life Sciences Laboratory, Polymer Composites Laboratory, NESAC-BIO Surface Analysis Laboratory, and research and teaching laboratories in Surface Science and Colloids and Electrochemistry.
UW Chemical Engineering boasts a long record of research accomplishments, including the home kidney dialysis machine, textbooks on numerical mathematics for chemical engineering, genomics and proteomics, development of polymer composites for airplane manufacture, design of a Seattle Metro sewer project that saved local taxpayers about $10 million, blue LEDs for photonics, and development of a biocompatible, plasma deposited polymer.
