History
A Brief History of the Department
The department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science was established in August 1989 as Chemical Engineering Department with undergraduate program. One year later, in August 1990, the department started Master degree program. The department is undertaking an extensive expansion program in faculty, equipment and research commensurate with University’s objective of strengthening and broadening research activity at both graduate and undergraduate levels.
Thus after eight years, i.e. August 1998, the department established PhD program. During the first 15 years, the department focuses on the core area of chemical engineering and also the interdisciplinary areas with materials science, environmental technology, and biotechnology. The faculties of the department strongly cooperate with Environmental Technology Center, Fuel Cell Center, and Research and Development Center of Far Eastern Textile Co in materials, fuel cells and environmental research programs. The department has developed three course programs for students to take, i.e. (1) Chemical and environmental program; (2) Materials program; and (3) Biotechnological program. In August 2004, the department decided to change its title as “Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science”.
The department is currently located in 2 to 4 floors of Yuan Ze 2nd building with house research and teaching laboratories and lecture rooms. The Instrumental Center of the department owned modern chemical and materials characterization equipments including: (1) FTIR, UV, and Raman spectroscopy; (2) GC, HPLC, and ICP chromatography; (3) DSC, TGA, and TMA thermo-analysis; (4) Mechanical properties of materials testing instrument; (5) SEM, AFM, FTIR, and Raman microscope; (6) X-ray diffraction; (7) elemental analysis; (8) GC-mass spectrometer; (9) laser light scattering etc.
The department accepts students studying towards Bachelor, Master, and PhD degrees in Engineering. Students are supported on a mixture of teaching and research assistantships and fellowships. The average time for completion of Bachelor degree is 4 years full time, Master degree with thesis is 2 years full time, for doctoral degree is 4.5 years full time. Currently we have around 457 undergraduate students, 177 MS degree graduated students, and 13 doctoral degree students.