Doctor of Philosophy Program

Overview and Requirements

The Ph.D. program builds upon the foundation of knowledge developed in the course of prior studies at the B.S. and M.S. levels. The Ph.D. degree consists of five (5) core courses, as well as credits for seminar, electives, research, and dissertation; a total of seventy-two hours (72) are required. Students must also pass a qualifying examination for the doctorate degree and perform novel and innovative research that leads to a written thesis. The thesis must be successfully defended in a final oral examination by the Doctoral committee that is chaired by the thesis advisor. The average time to degree is approximately five years for the Ph.D.

The Graduate Student Handbook outlines requirements, policies, and procedures for the Ph.D. program.

Curriculum & Courses

Required Courses

The following five (5) core courses are required for the Ph.D.:

• CHE 5310 − Advanced Chemical Engineering Techniques
• CHE 5312 − Fluids Transport Principles & Analysis
• CHE 5321 − Advanced Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics
• CHE 5323 − Digital Computation for Chemical Engineers
• CHE 5343 − Reaction Kinetics

These five core courses must be completed with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or above in the first two years of study. In addition to the core courses, a minimum of four elective courses should be taken, with courses selected in consultation with the thesis advisor. Graduate students must also enroll in a seminar course each long semester, which is counted towards the degree plan. The degree also requires research credits (ChE 7000) and twelve (12) dissertation credits (CHE 8000), three (3) of which must be taken the semester in which the student defends.

Ph.D. students are required to have a minimum of 72 credits by the time of thesis defense. Below is the typical breakdown of credit hours towards the degree plan.

*Titles to be provided in degree plan for all but 6 credits.

Students must have an overall GPA of 3.0 or higher in their graduate coursework, in addition to a GPA of 3.0 or higher in the required core courses.

Course Offerings

Specifically, the graduate courses offered by the Department of Chemical Engineering are as follows:

• CHE 5000 - Advanced Topics in Chemical Engineering
• CHE 5310 - Advanced Chemical Engineering Techniques
• CHE 5312 - Fluids Transport Principles and Analysis
• CHE 5314 - Process Dynamics and Automatic Control
• CHE 5316 - Linear Chemical Process Control Theory
• CHE 5317 - Chemical Process Model-Based Control
• CHE 5321 - Advanced Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics
• CHE 5323 - Digital Computational for Chemical Engineers
• CHE 5335 - Advanced Transport Phenomena
• CHE 5340 - Polymer Processing
• CHE 5341 - Polymer Chemistry and Processing
• CHE 5342 - Polymer Physics and Engineering
• CHE 5343 - Reaction Kinetics
• CHE 5344 - Polymers/Materials Lab
• CHE 5346 - Polymer Viscoelasticity
• CHE 5348 - Materials Applications of Scanning Probe Microscopy
• CHE 5363 - Biochemical Engineering
• CHE 5364 - Chemical Engineering Applications in Biological Systems
• CHE 5365 - Biotransport
• CHE 5366 - Biomicrofluidics
• CHE 5372 - Engineering Experimentation
• CHE 5381 - Statistical Mechanics for Chemical Engineers
• CHE 5382 - Methods for Molecular Simulations
• CHE 5385 - Bioprocess Control
• CHE 5635 - Advanced Topics in Transport
• CHE 6000 - Master's Thesis
• CHE 7000 - Research
• CHE 7121 - Doctoral Seminar
• CHE 7122 - Polymer and Materials Seminar
• CHE 7123 - Bioengineering Seminar
• CHE 8000 - Doctoral Dissertation