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11/23/2009 Fall Term

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Fast Facts

Departmental Information

Department Chair: Konstantinos Konstantopoulos

Number of:
Faculty: 13
Undergraduate Students: 333
Graduate Students: 72

Department Description

The Whiting School's ChemBE department combines traditional areas of study in chemical engineering with a focus on bio- and nano-technology and is centered on two areas of excellence—biomolecular engineering and interfacial/surface science and the possibilities that exist at their intersection.

These new areas of research offer important applications in a variety of areas in which Whiting School faculty are at the forefront of discovery, including:

• Micro- and nano-fluidics devices
• Micro mechanical electrical systems (MEMS)
• Interactions of nanomaterials
• Using cells to produce chemical products, and
• Understanding plaque formation in heart disease or metastatic events in cancer.  

Undergraduates in ChemBE study cell biology, biochemistry, biophysics, and essential chemical and biomolecular engineering concepts and can choose from three academic tracks:

• The biomolecular track emphasizes a deeper training in the biological sciences and in bio-engineering electives.
• The interfaces and nanotechnology track focuses on physical chemistry, interfacial sciences, materials, and nanotechnology.
• The third track allows students to take engineering electives in a less structured manner.

At the undergraduate level, electives are tailored to prepare graduates for medical school, related graduate engineering programs, and the biotech and pharmaceutical industries.

The graduate curriculum includes fundamental courses in each discipline and new required courses in interfaces and biomolecular engineering and electives that emphasize new areas of research. ChemBE’s graduate students are finding positions in leading industrial laboratories, start ups, and increasingly, in academics.

ChemBE Areas of Research

• Proteins in solution, protein design, protein-protein interactions
• Protein expression pathways, cellular adhesion events, cellular engineering
• Cell biophysics, delivery to cells and tissues
• Analysis and computational approaches to interfaces, complex fluids
• Self-assembly, surface characterization and control of surface interactions
• Nanostructured materials

ChemBE-Related Research Centers and Labs

• Advanced Drug and Gene Delivery Group
• Center for Environmental and Applied Fluid Mechanics
• Institute for Multiscale Modeling of Biological Interactions
• Institute for NanoBioTechnology
  
  

Undergraduate Degrees Offered

B.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Graduate Degrees Offered

M.S.E. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Recent News from the Department

6/4/08: David Gracias from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering has been selected as one of 12 recipients of the 2008 DuPont Young Professor Award. This award is designed to provide start-up assistance to promising young and untenured research faculty.

4/8/08: Solving the Z Ring's Mysteries: A team led by JH researchers, including ChemBE's Denis Wirtz , has made discoveries that could lead to a new type of antibiotics. More information >>

1/12/07: Coated Nanoparticles Solve Sticky Drug-Delivery Problem, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Associate Professor, Justin Hanes) More information >>

Contact Information

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
221 Maryland Hall,
3400 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21218

Tel: 410-516-7170
Fax: 410-516-5510
E-mail: che@jhu.edu