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Addressing Global Challenges

Chemical engineering is addressing pressing challenges to advance society such as biomedicine, energy, security, and sustainability. Join an R1 research institution and work alongside accomplished faculty in the heart of Boston - a hub for biotech, medical institutions, high tech, and academia.

Innovative Education and Research
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Experiential Learning

Offering rigorous yet flexible academics and top-ranked experience-powered learning to develop the next-generation of chemical engineering leaders.

Academic Offerings
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Interdisciplinary Research

Chemical engineering encompasses a broad range of cutting-edge research allowing them to work at the intersection of a variety of different fields, including biology, chemistry, energy, physics, materials science, and other engineering disciplines.

Hub of Innovation
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Vibrant Community

From being in the heart of the city of Boston with industry and the world's top hospitals, to a range of active student organizations and a network of faculty, alumni, and industry professionals, the Department of Chemical Engineering offers a welcoming and exciting community.

Engaged Student Groups

Spotlight Stories

Gwyneth McNamara
BS Chemical Engineering and Biochemistry, 2024

Gwyneth McNamara, E’24, chemical engineering and biochemistry, has gained extensive laboratory experience working co-ops at two Cambridge, Massachusetts pharmaceutical...

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Lina Abu-Absi
BS Chemical Engineering, 2024

Chemical engineering student Lina Abu-Absi, E’24, is the recipient of the 2022-2023 Donald F. & Mildred Topp Othmer Scholarship...

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NSF CAREER Award to Advance Understanding of Crosslinked Polymer Flows

ChE Assistant Professor Sara Hashmi was awarded a $550,000 NSF CAREER award for “In Situ Polymer Gelation in Confined Flows.” She aims to understand the range of system parameters that lead to intermittency and clogging in crosslinking polymer flows through microchannels, and to provide quantitative descriptions of intermittency and the rheological and material properties of intermittent flows.

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NIH Trailblazer Award for Engineering Smarter Gut Metabolites to Affect Human Health

ChE Assistant Professor Benjamin Woolston is leading a $628K NIH Trailerblazer Award with Assistant Professor Ryan Koppes, Associate Professor Abigail Koppes, and Professor Rebecca Carrier for “Engineered Probiotics for Closed-Loop Control of Disease-Associated Gut Metabolites in Gut-On-Chip Models.”

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New MS in Pharmaceutical Engineering

Through coursework and rich experiential learning, the new MS in Pharmaceutical Engineering prepares engineers with a unique blend of advanced skills in state-of-the art pharmaceutical design, manufacturing process engineering, regulatory and quality issues to meet the evolving and growing needs of the biotechnology industry.

View MS in Pharmaceutical Engineering

Engineering in Action

Chemical Engineering Research Co-op in Switzerland

Chemical Engineering student Hannah Boyce shares her unique experience conducting research abroad at ETH Zurich, one of Europe’s leading biotech institutions.

PhD Research for Impact

With a dream of curing breast cancer, Chinedu Okorafor, PhD in chemical engineering, took full advantage of her Northeastern University curriculum and surrounding biotech centers in Boston. Northeastern’s interdisciplinary approach—sparking collaborations among the sciences—helped her chart her own course toward a degree with many possible rewarding applications.

Reaching Career Goals

For Haroon Bukhari, MS in chemical engineering, the Northeastern experience culminated in a co-op at Rogers Corporation, an innovator in engineered materials. Focusing on applications including electric vehicles, he’s already building a career toward making green technologies safer, more efficient, and more cost-effective.

World-Renowned Cooperative Education

Bradley Priem, BS in chemical engineering, had two co-ops that gave him the ability to delve into a particular industry. At Synlogic he was a bioanalytical chemist and bacterial engineer creating e-coli strains, and at bluebird bio he was an upstream process development engineer for gene production. He now knows he wants to go into the biotech industry and is interested in graduate school too.

Recent News

Willits Elected to AIMBE Board of Directors

ChE Professor and Chair Rebecca Willits was elected to serve as the Secretary/Treasurer on the board of directors for the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) for 2024-2026. Willits is also a Fellow of AMBIE and the Biomedical Engineering Society.

Three Northeastern Faculty Selected as AIMBE Fellows

Bouvé/ChE University Distinguished Professor Mansoor Amiji, ChE/BioE Associate Professor Eno Ebong, and ECE/Khoury Professor Yun Raymond Fu were selected as Class of 2024 Fellows for the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

Four years on: the career costs for scientists battling long COVID

ChE Associate Professor Abigail Koppes was featured in the Nature article “Four years on: the career costs for scientists battling long COVID” for her experiences dealing with long COVID.

“Emerging Investigators” Are Studying Flow of Soft Materials through Tiny Spaces

Barrett Smith, PhD’24, chemical engineering, and ChE Assistant Professor Sara Hashmi were recognized for their work focusing on soft materials flowing through small spaces in the “Emerging Investigators” series of Soft Matter, which published their paper, “In Situ Polymer Gelation in Confined Flow Controls Intermittent Dynamics.”