The Chemical and Biological Engineering Department offers a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering, with optional Biological Engineering, Process Engineering, or Honors Research tracks.
Generally, the fields of chemical and biological engineering are extremely broad and encompass all technologies and industries where chemical processing is utilized in any form. Students with baccalaureate (BS) Chemical Engineering degrees from Mines can find employment in many diverse fields, including advanced materials synthesis and processing, product and process research and development, food and pharmaceutical processing and synthesis, biochemical and biomedical materials and products, microelectronics manufacturing, petroleum and petrochemical processing, and process and product design. Students in the Biological Engineering, Process Engineering, or Honors Research track take 12 credits of technical and chemical engineering electives designed to provide additional focus in these areas. The Biological and Process Engineering tracks are open to all students. The Honors Research track requires students to apply and be accepted. Alternatively, students can earn their degree without being in a track, customizing their electives without any restrictions.
The practice of chemical engineering draws from the fundamentals of biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics. Accordingly, undergraduate students must initially complete a program of study that stresses these basic fields of science. Chemical engineering coursework blends these four disciplines into a series of engineering fundamentals relating to how materials are produced and processed both in the laboratory and in large industrial-scale facilities. Courses such as fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer, thermodynamics, reaction kinetics, and chemical process control are at the heart of the chemical engineering curriculum at Mines. In addition, it is becoming increasingly important for engineers to understand how biological and microscopic, molecular-level properties can influence the macroscopic behavior of materials, biological, and chemical systems. This somewhat unique focus is first introduced at Mines through the physical and organic chemistry sequences, and the theme is continued and developed within the chemical engineering curriculum via material and projects introduced in advanced courses. Our undergraduate program at Mines is exemplified by intensive integration of computer-aided simulation and computer-aided process modeling in the curriculum and by our unique approach to teaching of the unit operations laboratory sequence. The unit operations lab course is offered only in the summer as a six-week intensive session. Here, the fundamentals of heat, mass, and momentum transfer and applied thermodynamics are reviewed in a practical, applications-oriented setting. The important skills of teamwork, critical thinking, time management, and oral and written technical communications skills are also stressed in this course.
Facilities for the study of chemical and biological engineering at the Colorado School of Mines are among the best in the nation. Specialized undergraduate laboratory facilities exist for studying polymer properties, measuring reaction kinetics, characterizing transport phenomena, and for studying several typical chemical unit operations. Our undergraduate research program is open to highly qualified students and provides our undergraduates with the opportunity to carry out independent research or to join a graduate research team. This program has been highly successful and our undergraduate chemical engineering students have won several national competitions and awards based on research conducted while pursuing their baccalaureate degrees. We also have a cooperative (co-op) education program in which students can earn course credit while gaining work experience in industry.
The Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering program is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, https://www.abet.org, under the commission's General Criteria and Program Criteria for Chemical, Biochemical, Biomolecular, and Similarly named Engineering Programs.
Please visit our webpage for contact points and more information on the degree program, including details on how to apply for the Honors Research track at https://chemeng.mines.edu/.
PRIMARY CONTACT
Professor Rachel Morrish, Associate Department Head