The School of Chemical Engineering is one of the core schools of the Beijing University of Chemical Technology. The origin of this school can trace back to the year of 1958, the same year as the university’s establishment, when it consisted of the two specialties of Basic Organic Synthesis and Inorganic Chemical Engineering. In 1978, the Department of Chemical Engineering was founded amidst readjustments of schools and departments. In 1984, our Doctoral program was approved by the Office of Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council and our Postdoctoral Research Station on Chemical Engineering and Technology was set up in 1988. In 1996, the School of Chemical Engineering was founded on the basis of the Department of Chemical Engineering, the Department of Pharmaceutical and Biological Engineering, the Department of Environmental Engineering, and the Chemical Research Institute. In 2000, our discipline of Chemical Engineering and Technology was approved as a first-level discipline to confer the Doctor’s degree. In 2001, the discipline of Chemical Engineering became a national key discipline. In 2005, our Postdoctoral Research Station on Chemical Engineering and Technology was rated “nationally excellent”. In the disciplinary assessment carried out by the Ministry of Education in 2006, our fist-level discipline of Chemical Engineering and Technology was rated “fifth” among the same disciplines of the whole country. In 2007, Chemical Engineering and Technology became one of the first batch of national first-level key disciplines. In 2014, the Postdoctoral Research Station on Environmental Science and Engineering was established. As an important base for the cultivation of China’s advanced talents in chemical engineering and scientific research, our School of Chemical Engineering ranks first-class among all the schools and departments of the same kind in China.
The School of Chemical Engineering offers Doctor’s degrees in two first-level programs, namely, Chemical Engineering and Technology (including the five second-level disciplines of Chemical Engineering, Chemical Technology, Industrial Catalysis, Applied Chemistry, and Biological Chemistry) and Environmental Science and Engineering (including the two second-level disciplines of Environmental Engineering and Environmental Science), two Master of Engineering programs in Chemical Engineering and Environmental Engineering, and three undergraduate programs in Chemical Engineering and Technology, Environmental Engineering and Energy Chemical Technology, thus forming a complete system of academic degree programs composed of Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctor’s Degrees in Chemical Engineering and Environmental Science.
The School has a team of academic leaders with innovative spirit including academicians, Changjiang Scholars and National Distinguished Young Scholars. Of the 147 faculty and staff, there are one academician double-employed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), one Thousand Talents Program expert (also a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering), two Changjiang Scholars Distinguished Professors, one Changjiang Scholars Chair Professors, four Winners of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, one 973 Program Chief Scientist, one Nationally Outstanding Teacher, four Outstanding Teachers of Beijing, and sixteen New Century Talents awarded by the Ministry of Education. Of all the full-time teachers, there are sixty Doctoral Supervisors and more than 100 Full or Associate Professors, with 80% of them being young and middle-aged teachers with Doctoral Degrees.
The School attaches importance to educational reform and innovation with a view to building a high-level talent cultivation system. At present, the School boasts a National-level Chemical Engineering Teaching Team, a National-level Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and an Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center for Chemical Engineering for Higher Education Institutions in Beijing. After years of development, our Chemical Engineering and Technology has become a National-level Characteristic specialty, our Energy Chemical Engineering among the first batch of Undergraduate Specialties Geared for National Strategic Emerging Industries as well as a National-level Characteristic specialty, and our Environmental Engineering a Characteristic specialty of Beijing. The school also attaches great importance to teaching research. In recent years, it has undertaken five educational reform projects at the Provincial or Ministerial level, won twelve education and teaching awards at the national, Provincial or Ministerial levels, developed two National Essential Courses and three Essential Courses of Beijing, and published ten textbooks under the categories of National-level Textbooks for the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, Excellent Textbooks of the Ministry of Education, and Excellent Textbooks of Beijing.
Guided and driven by major national needs, the School has developed the three-in-one innovation system of “basic research—technological innovation—engineering application” featuring pioneering and interdisciplinary research. We have in place a first-class research platform and base in China and an Innovation Research Group funded by the National Natural Science Foundation, which is so far the only one for the discipline of Chemical Engineering in China. We have a number of research facilities under joint operations, including the State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, the State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, the Research Center of the Ministry of Education for Higher Gravity Engineering and Technology, the Research Center of Beijing Higher Education Institutions for Environmental Pollution Control and Resource Engineering, and the Beijing Key Laboratory of Membrane Science and Technology, etc. In recent years, the School has undertaken more than 100 research projects of the 973 Program, the 863 Program, the National Sci-Tech Support Plan, and the National Natural Science Foundation. The annual research funds average at eighty million, the annual publications of SCI papers average at 170, and the annual applications of national and international patents at about forty. We have received more than twenty important awards including the National Award for Technological Invention, the National Prize for Progress in Science and Technology, and those given by the Ministry of Education or the Beijing Municipal Government. With our teaching and research strengths spread into the fields of Chemical Engineering, Chemical Technology, Industrial Catalysis, Nano Materials and Nanotechnology, Energy Chemical Engineering, Resource Chemical Engineering, Environmental Engineering, and Applied Chemistry, etc., we have become an important base for the education of China’s advanced chemical engineering talents as well as scientific research and technological development.
The School has carried out effective and fruitful international cooperation and communication with a view to open education, the cultivation of innovative talents, and understanding the frontiers of international scientific research. We have established close ties of academic and research cooperation with the University of California, the Washington State University, the Case Western Reserve University, the University of Washington, the Rugers University, the Delft University of Technology, the University of New South Wales, the University of Strathclyde，the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the Fukui University of Japan, as well as international corporations such as the Dow Chemical, the BASF Corporation, and the Singapore Nanotechnology, etc., and hosted several international academic symposiums. We have also established cooperation in the joint education of students with the University of New South Wales, the Loughborough University, the France tours engineer school, the Brad Ford University, the New Mexico State University, the University of Strathclyde, and the Queens University Belfast, etc.
In the new century, the School of Chemical Engineering will continue to forge ahead with a pioneering spirit. By giving priorities to talent cultivation, disciplinary development, systemic innovation, and team building, we shall strive to become an internationally recognized school of chemical engineering.