Who we are
We work hard to shape scientific minds in a familial, friendly, tight-knit atmosphere. You’ll be made to feel welcome from the very first day, forming strong bonds with your professors and fellow students that will benefit you professionally and personally.
What we do
In focused research groups, students and faculty within WPI’s Chemical Engineering Department go beyond the classroom to solve real-world problems, continuing to make discoveries in areas like environmental protection, renewable energy, and life sciences, through research and development of new technologies, processes, and materials.
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The WPI Chemical Engineering Class of 2020 had to deal with unprecedented conditions to finish their degrees this year. Their hard work, dedication, and perserverance saw them through. This year, students made videos of their Major Qualifying Projects. Check them out here. Congratulations to you all!
Eric Young, the Leonard P. Kinnicutt Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, was awarded a prestigious NSF CAREER grant for his project "A Red Yeast Cell Factory." The five year award will enable the bioengineering of basidiomycetes, a group of fungi essential to many important biological processes yet lacking tools available for other yeast.
Dr. Young works in synthetic biology, a new field at the intersection of engineering and biology. His research focuses on developing new yeast "cell factories" for production of fuels, chemicals, and therapies as well as biosecurity technology needed to control release of genetically engineered organisms. He also knows a bit about growing yeast at home!
Andrew Teixeira, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, was awarded a prestigious NSF CAREER grant for his project entitled "Nitrogen Activation: Splitting Kinetic Cycles and Breaking Energetic Barriers with Pulsed Catalysis." The five year award will develop a new catalytic strategy for overcoming thermodynamic and kinetic barriers by dynamically operating a catalytic cycle at various temperatures and thermodynamic environments.
Dr. Teixeira works in reaction engineering, a core chemical engineering discipline. His research utilizes fundamental reaction engineering principles to unlock the mysteries driving kinetic and catalytic systems.
A recent article by WPI researchers was selected as a 2019 Green Chemistry HOT article. The paper, authored by WPI graduate student Maksim Tyufekchiev and Associate Professor Mike Timko, was performed in collaboration with researchers at Brandeis University and Washington University in St. Louis. Congratulations!
Associate Professor Mike Timko's collaborative work with researchers at MIT was recently published in Nature Communications. The paper, titled "Engineered microbial biofuel production and recovery under supercritical carbon dioxide," describes organism engineering and separations processes to produce biofuels in supercritical CO2. Congratulations to Professor Timko, his research team, and collaborators on this innovative work!
Researchers in the lab of Professor Hong Susan Zhou are developing a biosensor that doctors and nurses can use to quickly detect Clostridium difficile, a dangerous and sometimes fatal gastrointestinal infection. The work is funded by the National Science Foundation.
Professor Deskins, in collaboration with WPI Mechanical Engineering Professor Pratap Rao, received funding to train clean energy innovators.
Professors Deskins and Rao also were awarded NSF funding to increase the efficiency of catalysts for the production and utilization of carbon-free or carbon-neutral fuels via electrical-to-chemical and solar-to-chemical processes. Professor Deskins, in collaboration with Professor Xiaowei Teng at the University of New Hampshire, is also funded to develop efficient, cleaner methods to produce hydrogen, a valuable fuel and chemical feedstock.
Terri Camesano, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Dean of Graduate Studies, received a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship. Sara Olson, a WPI faculty in Mathematical Sciences, was also awarded. Congratulations to both professors! Read more here.
Department of Chemical Engineering Professor Sue Roberts, Department Head, was recently highlighted in the Worcester Telegram! The new genetic engineering technique developed by her research group could improve plant cell based production of the important anticancer drug paclitaxel (Taxol). For more, see the WPI News article associated with the research.
Separation membranes hold the key to making hydrogen fuel cheaper; in a pioneering study, the researchers show that membranes made with liquid metals appear to be more efficient at separating hydrogen than conventional palladium membranes while also being less expensive and more durable. Read more here!
WPI Chemical Engineering Professor of Practice Stephen Kmiotek was recently featured in the WPI Journal. Click here to learn about hard hats, riding camels, and his minions!
Thang Pham, an undergraduate in our research group, won the “Best Presentation Computation and Theory” presentation at the Gulf Coast Undergraduate Research Symposium at Rice University. Congratulations Thang!
WPI Chemical Engineering major Celeste Marsan '19, who recently completed an Amgen scholarship at the University of California, Berkeley, was recently featured in WPI Insider! Check out the full article here.
The WPI Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers attended NSBE44 in Pittsburgh, PA in March. Several outstanding WPI ChE students attended. WPI NSBE members got a lot out of the conference, a handful of them securing interviews and learning a lot from the variety of workshops!
Martha Stewart Living cited work by Associate Chemical Engineering Professor Michael Timko in their online article. “What do you get when you mix food and yard waste? Hopefully a new eco-friendly source of biofuel. Michael Timko, a professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, in Worcester, Massachusetts, is working on a project—being funded by the Department of Energy to the tune of almost $2 million—to mix food waste with municipal green waste, such as yard trimmings, leaves, and sticks. By combining the two kinds of waste, Timko is aiming to create even more energy-dense oil that can be upgraded to a liquid biofuel.”
In the article, “WPI Awarded $3M for Graduate Data Program” the Worcester Business Journal reported on WPI using a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish a unique graduate curriculum to train the next generation of scientists who can apply chemical sciences along with data analytics, mathematics, and computing power to reduce energy usage, waste, and pollution. Elke Rundensteiner, professor of computer science, founding director of the Data Science program, and principal investigator on the grant, is collaborating with Michael Timko and Aaron Deskins, associate professors of chemical engineering, and Randy Paffenroth, associate professor of mathematical and data sciences, among others.
