Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical Engineering

The institutional requirements for the doctoral degree are described in the General Catalog.

Requirements specific to the chemical engineering department are as follows:

  • Satisfactory completion of specified coursework
  • Satisfactory performance in a qualifying examination covering the field of chemical engineering
  • Submission of a written thesis proposal and satisfactory oral defense of this proposal
  • Submission of an acceptable dissertation, and satisfactory oral defense of this dissertation
  • Presentation of research results at a departmental seminar

Doctoral students are expected to be well grounded in the fundamentals of chemical engineering and must successfully complete the following courses (or their equivalents).

Course number
Course name
Credit hours
CHE 735 Chemical Engineering Analysis I 3
CHE 815 Advanced Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics 3
CHE 822 Advanced Chemical Reaction Engineering 3
CHE 862 Advanced Transport Phenomena I 3
CHE 875 ChE Graduate Seminar 8
Elective Graduate Courses (see below) 18
Total Coursework Requirement 38 hours

No more than 6 hours of course work at the 500-level are permitted.

Elective graduate courses

All students are required to demonstrate a mastery of some body of knowledge in their research field by completing elective courses. At least fifteen hours of work is required in addition to those listed above.

Thesis hours

A doctoral degree must include at least 30 hours of research credits. All students on stipends must be enrolled 9 hours per semester. Students receive research credit for those hours not taken as coursework. Thus, reaching this minimum is not difficult.

Total hours

A minimum of 90 hours is required for a Doctor of Philosophy degree. This total includes hours from coursework and for thesis credit. Students enrolled in 12 hours per semester during the regular semesters and 3 hours during the summer term would achieve this total in just over 3 years.