The PhD degree in chemical engineering is a research-based doctoral degree program. The program requirements are designed to provide candidates with fundamental understanding of core chemical engineering principles and intensive original research experience. Research opportunities are available in advanced materials, catalysis and electrocatalysis, batteries, biological and medical systems, computational fluid dynamics, functional interfaces, optical materials and theory, simulations and artificial intelligence in well-funded, department-affiliated research groups.The Department of Chemical Engineering offers graduate programs leading to PhD and MS degrees in chemical engineering. Students in our department participate in groundbreaking, multidisciplinary research and education in an innovative environment. Students can join one of our distinguished and well-funded research groups and benefit from close interactions with our faculty, through carefully designed courses and cutting-edge research projects.Our faculty value interdisciplinary research, giving students the opportunity to collaborate with other departments like chemistry, optics, biomedical engineering, and materials science. The department and the university offer state-of-the-art research equipment and computer facilities to perform high-impact research.Material interfaces play a crucial role in such fundamental phenomena as adhesion, friction, separation, imagelight scattering, and heterogeneous molecular interactions. Therefore, a wide-ranging control over the interfacial material properties would catalyze implementation of a vast range of innovations spanning multiple disciplines such as sensing and recognition, heterogeneous catalysis, electrocatalysis, polymer science, material separation and filtration, nano-scale manufacturing, molecular electronics and others. Chemical engineers at the University of Rochester advance fundamental molecular engineering at interfaces, especially as applied to novel molecular and thin-film coating, nano-scale fabrication, processing of soft materials, and interfacial molecular interactions and transport. The Chemical Engineering Department and the University of Rochester provide researchers with access to a broad range of preparation and characterization equipment, and to excellent computational tools.
