Undergraduate
Chemical Engineers make chemistry happen
Chemical engineers make chemistry happen. At the undergraduate level, we focus on the strategies for guiding chemical processes. We select the raw ingredients that will combine to give us the chemical we want, control the reaction conditions to produce as much of the target chemical as possible and then remove unwanted chemicals to yield a pure product.
This training, founded in an understanding of chemistry, mathematics and physical sciences, sets our graduates up to begin work immediately in manufacturing plants and traditional chemical processing industries, but modern chemical engineers can do much more. Faculty in our department use their chemical engineering skills to process biomass into fuel or invent battery designs that could provide the breakthrough needed to store renewable wind and solar energy on the grid scale. They look for new ways to catch diseases early and deliver drugs straight to where they are needed. Here at U-M, the opportunity to engage in this cutting-edge research is yours even as an undergraduate student.