University and Department Summary
The Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware is in the unique position of being an excellent school within an otherwise mediocre university. This is probably still due to the strong links that exist with the DuPont company. Today, most research staff are still affiliated with DuPont. The department was founded in 1938 by A.P. Colburn and has seen some famous people such as Robert L. Pigford who joined after WW II.
Currently, there are 280 undergraduate students associated with the department. 104 Ph.D. students and 15 post docs. The department has twenty-one full-time faculty staff and two emeritus professors. Of these, seven professors hold named chairs and five are members of the National Academy of Engineering. In the past eight professors have received the Presidential/NSF Young Investigators/CAREER Award. All faculty members have a PhD in chemical engineering, extra skills sets have been acquired through Post-doctorates in other areas. The chairperson has the power to set pay rises and to allocate space. All full professors perform evaluation of new appointments and promotions. Promotion is based on research. Teaching quality is assessed using exit interviews of students at the end of the undergraduate or postgraduate program.
It is a 4 year degree course (two semester per year). All courses are 1 semester courses. Usually about 42 courses in curriculum. Additionally Delaware has two short terms to take courses (summer and January). Typically 9 courses in maths physics and chemistry which are completed by 2nd year (includes laboratories). Required Engineering Science and Design (21 courses throughout the degree). At least 4 engineering electives selected in consultation with faculty advisor. At least 8 non-technical courses such as humanities, liberal arts etc. A drop out rate of 50 % is common, however, students usually continue their studies at a less demanding university. Approximately 25 % of their undergraduates go on to do a PhD. Civil engineering and chemical engineering have just joined forces to create a new course in environmental engineering.
90 % of current PhD students are US nationals. The recruitment rate is 25 per annum (out of 60 offers made). The number of serious applications will be around 200. Graduate students choose their research project after presentations by faculty. Funding of the PhD studentship comes from the project but ‘bridging’ from the department may be available for a couple of months. PhD students are relatively free in their approach to the project (advisor versus supervisor). No official time limit is imposed, however, financial support beyond 4 years depends on the advisor. A fifth year may be funded through teaching assistantships.
There was here some unhappiness with the quality of the post-graduate students similar to those heard in the UK
The usual start-up package for new faculty lies between $ 250k and $ 500k. Additionally, two PhD students are assigned (even before arrival) and funded for 3 years. A summer salary is paid for 2 years.
Research in the department focuses on : biochemical and biomedical engineering, catalysis and surface science, electronic materials processing, expert systems and process control, polymer science and engineering, thermodynamics and phase equilibria.
Two research centres have been established:
Both centres reflect the move towards molecular scale analysis of chemical processes. The NSF funded the formation of the two centres. Now, the centres are mainly sponsored by industry (DuPont, Chevron, Novartis, Mobil, Texaco, Exxon etc.). The major mechanism of centre sponsorship is by donation of gifts (min $10k - $25k) and research contracts of min $ 50k. Courses are used to augment income.
The only benefits companies receive are:
- early access to research results
- access to facilities
- interaction with faculty
- discounted fees for courses
The centres are run by a group of faculty members (critical mass) who joined efforts to establish them. They are organised like a commercial enterprise and vigorously protect their work (e.g. CCST members currently hold 24 patents of which 9 are assigned to other organisations). A new centre is about to be started for process monitoring and control. We had the opportunity to visit some facilities of the CCST and were deeply impressed by the number and quality of the instrumentation available. However, it appears that most of the equipment was bought when the CCST was thriving and the annual budget was close to $ 1.5M (early 80’s).
"catalysis needs a renaissance"
"surface science is big in chemical engineering"
A deliberate decision on the future of the department was made at a ‘faculty weekend retreat’. Two growth areas were determined:
There is the general feeling that core chemical engineering problems are essentially solved, and that chemical engineering tools now need to be applied in other fields. Based on this view and the move of DuPont into the life sciences, Delaware started biochemical engineering in 1982. Most faculty claim that their research is interest driven. However, areas of funding develop from needs in society and hence faculty interest may sway. Most faculty have strong contacts with local industry - unrestricted gifts.
Research groups usually comprise of 1 faculty and 6-8 PhD students (perhaps 1-2 PostDoc). A quick survey on the publishing rate of current research active faculty over the past 17 years yields: 1794 publications which is 106 per annum and 4.2 per faculty per year. There is a wide spread of individual publishing rates. Also, young faculty (assistant professors) would obviously not have published over the past 17 years.
The overheads carried by research projects are 52 %. Hence, most faculty are actively seeking unrestricted gifts from industry. Typically, industrial projects amount to $ 50k to $ 100k. NSF funding can be up to $500k (e.g. Presidential Early Career Award).
There were some comments about the exclusivity of NSF Directorates.
There is a problem of continuity of funding for post-graduates. Bridging was possible from the department for two months before assignment of p.g. to a project. Teaching assistant money may be used to run 5th year of some PhD students
Eric Kaler, Prasad Dhurjati, Mark Barteau, Abraham Lenhoff, Andrew Zydney, Antony Beris, Stanley Sandler.