Founded by Stephen Van Rensselaer in 1824 for the purpose of instruction "in the application of science to the common purposes of life,'' the Rensselaer School has evolved into a pre-eminent Polytechnic Institute with a long history of offering engineering programs of distinction. When departments were first formed in 1922, four came into being, all bearing engineering designations. Chemical Engineering was among them, and it included the courses in chemistry. Not until 1944 did Chemistry become a separate entity. This represents a sequence probably unique in American higher education.

By about 1985 it became clear that biological applications were to become an integral part of chemical engineering, and the department embarked on development of a program in bioseparations engineering, that has since gained world-wide recognition. Other areas of widely recognized reputation include chromatography, combustion, environmental engineering, interfacial and transport phenomena, membrane processes, polymer processing, and thermodynamics.

There are 14 full-time faculty. From 1991 to 1995, the department awarded about 50 Ph.D. degrees, a rate that ranks within the top 20 Ph.D.-producing departments of chemical engineering in the U.S.

The normal complement of graduate students within the department is about 65, with research expenditures amounting to more than $2,500,000 per year

A normal load is one u/g course each in autumn and spring term; plus one grad course per year. It is said that students are weak in mathematics.

People who do PhDs have usually chosen that route to become academics. There is no initial benefit in doing a doctorate and then going into industry, the lost salary (over the 5 years) is not recouped. The department gets alumni money for PhDs, and funds students by TAships and fellowships for the first year (there is an endowment of $200k/yr to support first year graduate students in the department from Howard Isermann the department's benefactor). The dept doesn’t always know whether they have the money for a student before they start. Grad students take exams after six months, then have an oral exam after 2-3 years, and the whole PhD takes about 4.5 years on average. It is required that a grad student does 36 hours of courses towards a PhD.

• The M.S. is not too important, and is a ‘rite of passage’ for a PhD student.
• "The US is very self-focussed culturally – so it is very hard for an American to go abroad. US PhDs are too long, and that they should be shortened to 3 years, as this would increase their productivity."

More than 50% of the best candidates that apply for an assistant professorship will have had post-doctoral experience. Even those who haven done a post-doc at the time of applying, will go and do one before taking up their faculty position. This is becoming increasingly common across chemical engineering, although it is slightly higher in biochemical engineering.

Biochemical engineers who do post-doctorates usually do them in chemistry or biology departments. Biologists are starting to see the benefits (mostly in quantitative analysis) of having some engineering in their research groups.

Jon Dordick, Joel Plawsky, Georges Belfort, Steve Cramer, Wayne Bequette.