Chemical Engineering

Return to: Graduate Programs, Certificates, Specializations, Emphases

The Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering has well established programs in Chemical Engineering at both undergraduate (B.S.) and graduate (M.S/Ph.D.) levels. The graduate program is designed to prepare students for careers in research or education. A choice of courses and research topics allows the student to become specialized in specific areas.

Research projects cover a wide area of chemical engineering and include both fundamental and applied topics. The major active research areas include pulping and bleaching processes, coating flows, flow in porous media, rheology, advanced materials, surface chemistry, molecular biophysics, advanced imaging and spectroscopic techniques,  nanotechnology, soft materials, and heterogeneous catalysis.

One unique aspect of the department is the close contact students get with industrial sponsors. This interaction with industry gives the students real life exposure and good contacts. The Paper Surface Science Program is a consortium of companies that meet regularly to review student research. A number of other research projects receive direct support and input from industrial representatives.  In addition to industrial support, the department receives significant funding from governmental agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Some funding recently has been obtained from foundations interested to produce fuels from biomass as well as to use cellulose nanofibers in various packaging applications.

Research Facilities

The Department has well-equipped laboratories that include some specialized facilities such as a two-photon microscope, two custom built confocal microscopes, and a comprehensive analytical chemistry suite. The department also has fully equipped pilot plants linked to paper production and biomass conversion to fuels and chemicals. In addition, students have access to other equipment on campus such as equipment in the Frontier Institute for Research in Sensor Technology and the Advanced Structures and Composites Center.

Requirements

The M.S. degree requires 30 semester hours of graduate work which must include two seminars and 18 credits of term courses in addition to the thesis. Students holding a B.S. degree in other engineering or science disciplines are also eligible for admission to the M.S. program, although additional remedial coursework may be required. The Ph.D. degree requires a minimum of 45 semester hours, beyond the B.S. level, comprising four seminars and at least 24 credits of graduate term courses in addition to a research thesis. Ph.D. candidates are also required to pass a qualifying examination on chemical engineering fundamentals and to present and successfully defend a thesis proposal. Students who enter the Ph.D. program with a recognized M.S. degree may be allowed to transfer up to 30 course credits towards the Ph.D., subject to approval by the Graduate Committee of the Department. Required core courses for the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees are CHE 510 (Advanced Transport Phenomena), CHE 540 (Advanced Thermodynamics), CHE 561 (Advanced Kinetics) and CHE 580 (Numerical Methods).

Financial Aid

Financial assistance is available in the form of graduate assistantships which pay for tuition, health insurance, and a stipend. All applicants are automatically considered for funding, although funding is not guaranteed.

Applying

Applications for admission should be submitted as soon as possible and at least five months in advance of the proposed starting date. Students applying for the fall semester should have their application in by the first of January of that year. Further details of the program and current research projects can be obtained from the Graduate Coordinator of the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, on request.

 Correspondence:

The Graduate School
5775 Stodder Hall, Room 42
University of Maine
Orono, ME 04469-5755
207-581-3291
graduate@maine.edu

Dept. of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
117 Jenness Hall
University of Maine
Orono, ME 04469-5737
207-581-2277

 thomas.schwartz@maine.edu

 

Graduate Faculty
 

Douglas W. Bousfield, Ph.D. (California at Berkeley, 1986), Calder  Professor. Fluid mechanics, rheology, numerical methods, coating processes, modeling of coating and absorption processes.

William J. DeSisto, Ph.D., (Brown, 1989),  Professor. Applied electrochemistry.

Caitlin Howell, Ph.D. (University of Heidelberg, Germany, 2011) Associate Professor. Biological interfaces, bacterial biofilm growth and control, surface-mediated tissue engineering, dynamic materials design.

Andre Khalil, Ph.D. (Universite Laval, Canada, 2004).  Associate Professor. Computational biomedicine, cancer microenvironment, breast cancer, multiscale analyses. 

Michael D. Mason, Ph.D. (California at Santa Barbara, 2000), Professor.  Photophysics of nanoparticles and molecular nanoprobes, single molecule imaging, time-resolved single photon spectroscopic imaging techniques.

David J. Neivandt, Ph.D. (Melbourne, 1998), Professor. Conformation of interfacial species, surface spectroscopies/microscopies, binary polymer/surfactant solutions and lipid membrane structures.

Yonghao Ni, Ph.D. (McGill, 1992), Professor and J. Larcom Ober Chair.  Pulp and paper manufacturing, lignocellulose materials, nanocellulose, value-added lignocellulosic products.

Thomas J Schwartz, Ph.D. (Wisconsin, 2015), Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator.  Heterogeneous catalysis, reaction kinetics, in situ spectroscopy, biomass conversion to fuels and chemicals.

Karissa Tillbury, Ph.D. (Wisconsin, 2015), Associate Professor. Extracellular matrix remodeling, cellular metabolism, non-linear microscopy techniques: second harmonic generation (SHG) imaging microscopy, multiphoton microscopy, STEM education.

G. Peter van Walsum, Ph.D. (Dartmouth College, 1998), Professor and Interim Chair. Biomass processing, biorefining, renewable energy, fuels and chemicals, process engineering.

M. Clayton Wheeler, Ph.D., P.E. (Texas at Austin, 1997), Professor. Biofuels, catalysis.

Evan K. Wujcik, Ph.D. (University of Akron, 2013), Assistant Professor. Polymers, composites, advanced materials, stretchable electronics, conductive polymers, organic mixed ionic-electronic conductors, self-healing polymers, electrospinning, electrohydrodynamics, green engineering, environmental engineering, water quality.