About the Department

The Facts

  • 34 faculty
  • 40% of faculty are women (9) and minorities (8)
  • 130 graduate students
  • 2 Ph.D. programs,
    Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
  • 30 post doctoral scholars
  • 12 staff
  • 350 undergraduates
  • 5 undergraduate majors,
    4 ABET-accredited
  • 65,000 square feet of space
  • $12M+ annual research funding
 

A Commitment to Excellence and Diversity

The Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science is noted not only for its commitment to excellence—recruiting top-notch graduate students—but also for diversity, attracting traditionally underrepresented groups and those with backgrounds other than chemical engineering and materials science and engineering. CHMS faculty have received numerous national, local, and campus awards for teaching and research.

A Melting Pot of Intellectual Diversity

The Department houses two Ph.D. programs: Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, with all faculty supervising students in either program, yielding a highly interdisciplinary environment. In addition to chemical engineering and materials science and engineering, our faculty hold degrees in chemistry, physics, biology, polymers, metallurgy, mechanics and biochemical engineering. Eight faculty have joint appointments with other departments, such as Molecular and Cell Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Food Science and Technology, Geology, Land, Air and Water Resources (LAWR), and Viticulture and Enology. Our faculty are also active in campus wide interdisciplinary programs, a fortunate environment for which UC Davis is known. Several are members of the Designated Emphasis in Biotechnology that trains students for academic and industrial positions in biotechnology. Both Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Engineering students can earn the Designated Emphasis, and have it noted on their degree.

Program Diversity

Our programs include such diverse fields as nanotechnology, surface science, colloidal science, transport phenomena, biochemical engineering, systems analysis, processing and properties of advanced materials, modern characterization techniques, alternative energy research, computational materials science, catalysis and applications of chemical engineering and materials science to problems in human health.

The True Measure of Success

To truly assess the success of our programs, however, you need only look to the positions our alumni hold in the academic and industrial worlds. Our students have challenging and interesting jobs in research universities and community colleges. Biotechnology companies like Genentech and Alza, and electronics companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Intel recruit our graduates to work in their major facilities located less than an hour from UC Davis. Our department has strong ties to the National Laboratories, where our graduates regularly are recruited.

Rapid Growth and Achievement

The Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science has made rapid gains in both size and quality. From 2006 to 2009, we hired six new faculty, including two women and a Latino. Because of substantial increases in the size of research programs and the quality of our applicants, our graduate program has grown by 55 percent between the 2002/03 and 2008/ 09 academic years.

Our History

The Chemical Engineering Department was founded at UC Davis in 1964 under the leadership of the late Joe Smith. There were four faculty. Professor Pieter Stroeve reflects on the first 20 years of the department in an article published in a 1986 edition of the Journal of Chemical Engineering.

Brief History of the Materials Science and Engineering Program at UC Davis

This short article was prepared by Professor Subhash Risbud and Jeff de Ropp

The Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) program started on the Davis campus in 1965-66 when Professor Amiya Mukherjee was appointed to the faculty in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The program grew as part of the Mechanical Engineering Department with the arrival of Professor Zuhair Munir in 1972, Professor James Shackelford in 1973, and Professor David Howitt in 1978. The mid 1980s saw further growth and faculty hires with the additions of Professors Jeff Gibeling and Joanna Groza. In 1990, Professor Subhash Risbud joined UC Davis (from previous faculty positions at Arizona and Urbana, Illinois) into what was then called the Division of Materials Science and Engineering in the Department of Mechanical, Aeronautical, and Materials Engineering (MAME).

In 1992, Dean Ghausi appointed a committee (chaired by Risbud with Zuhair Munir, Brian Higgins and Alan Jackman) to explore the possibility of moving the seven MSE faculty out of MAME and merging them with the faculty of the Department of Chemical Engineering. After a year-long discussion and faculty vote, the faculty agreed on forming a merged Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science effective summer 1993; faculty size of the whole Department in 1993 was 16. During this early phase of the merger, the period 1993-1996, the leadership of the new Department was in the hands of Brian Higgins as the Department Chair and Subhash Risbud as Vice-Chair. Subsequently, Subhash Risbud became Chair of the Department from 1996-2002; Bob Powell has chaired the Department since 2002. The Department has recruited a number of superb junior and senior faculty stars in the 16 years since we became a merged Department, which has 34 faculty today. ALL of the original seven faculty of the Materials Science and Engineering Division continue to be active citizens of the no longer “newly merged” CHMS department. And, since 1993, we have had the very good fortune of attracting numerous gifted faculty colleagues to CHMS rejuvenating once again the “multidisciplinary and collaborative” mantra of Materials Science!