A Message from Chair Ahmet Palazoglu
Welcome to the UC Davis Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science web site. Please take time to explore our undergraduate and graduate majors, discover all the exciting research carried out in the Department, and join us in celebrating the many accomplishments of our students and faculty.
Our Department was founded in 1964 by one of the legends of chemical engineering education, Professor J. M. Smith. His book Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics, first published in 1949 and now in its 7th edition, is one of the most enduring textbooks in our field and helped educate thousands of chemical engineers all around the world. Our Department continues Professor Smithís legacy by always striving for excellence in our teaching and research missions and by making fundamental analysis and critical thinking indispensable elements of our pedagogical culture.
With 33 faculty members, over 500 undergraduate students and 150 graduate students and research scholars, our Department proudly serves our community, our state and the nation. Our students find employment in industry, national laboratories, state and federal agencies as well as academia. The companies who employ our students match the diversity of our majors and research portfolio: Agilent, Abbott, Bayer, Chevron, Clorox, ConocoPhillips, E&J Gallo, Genentech, General Mills, Intel, Novartis, PepsiCo, and Raytheon, just to name a few.
Our faculty are tackling some of the most challenging problems facing the nation and the world today. From exploring solutions to the energy crisis and dealing with threats to the environment to developing new platforms for pharmaceuticals, our researchers are committed to making a difference. Poised at the interface between chemical engineering and materials science, we have a unique perspective to offer in addressing these challenges. Our faculty not only collaborate extensively with colleagues within the Department and the campus, they also participate in productive partnerships nationally and internationally. UC Davis has world-class programs in biology, agricultural and environmental sciences as well as food and health sciences. This rich setting creates exciting possibilities for our students and our faculty to pursue cutting-edge research.
The Department continues to thrive with a talented and vibrant group of faculty, students and staff. The campus has a positive, forward-looking vision to forge ahead. It is exciting times to be here at UC Davis!
I hope you will find the site to be stimulating and informative. Please do not hesitate to contact me by e-mail or simply drop by for a chat if you have any questions or comments.
Sincerely,
Ahmet Palazoglu
Department Chair
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