University of Massachusetts, Amherst
University and Department Summary
The department of chemical engineering is based on one of 5 campuses of the University of Massachusetts being at Amherst. The campus is very large by UK standards with large amounts of facilities for residents of which there are some 30,000. The University is funded by the state of Massachusetts. UMass proudly boasts that the CEO from General Electric Co. was a graduate of the department.
Only a small part of the building was visited and this was not impressive. They have refurbished parts for specific purposes and a well-regarded process design centre has been lavishly supported. Otherwise, they would like to build a new building. See above discussion on "classroom of the future" The faculty talked about funding for buildings being very difficult and sporadic. The funds usually are easier to get for larger projects rather than maintenance and refurbishment. The state of Massachusetts is a very political one and funding for the university varies widely with the political climate. Of late $2m funds were received from NSF along with $2m from University matching funds for refurbishment of a wing of the department. The chairman stated that he focuses on funding for people and equipment rather than facilities as he believed that this was the way to breed success, see later quote.
There are 16 faculty, 3 adjunct faculty, 7 people in administration and 3 technicians employed by the department. These faculty range in age between late twenties to late seventies. The department share out administration roles rotating them round over a number of years.
All undergraduates are recruited centrally and only come to the department in the second year. Their course structure from 2nd year onwards looks very similar to a typical UK course with a design project in the final year. Selected students have the opportunity to do a research project as an option or as a summer or paid job. Undergraduates come mainly from Massachusetts but there are some non-US citizens. Possibly because they pay for themselves they seem to be highly motivated and committed. The department currently has 138 undergraduates and graduates around 40 per year. About 25% of these students are female.
Most of their undergraduates go to the traditional process industry around the State however there are a growing number going to the pharmaceutical and other newer type industries. The market is currently very good and students can expect a starting salary of $45K per annum. Only about 1 in 15 go on to do graduate studies at other institutions. Undergraduates are not permitted to stay on to do PhDs.
The typical teaching load is 1 course per semester. PhD students as part of the requirements of their stipend carry out all grading. The department has recently build "the classroom of the future" This was funded with an $850K grant from General Electric Corp with supplemental funds of more than $200K from alumni and university resources. The classroom is part of an ongoing drive entitled "Campaign UMass" to raise $125m for the university, enlist 3000 more advocates, and enhance the university’s public image. The classroom has 26 computers linked to the central computer at the board with specialised engineering software. Susan Roberts uses this facility to teach chemical engineering fundamentals and computers to sophomores. As mentioned above this grant also funds time and resources for faculty to develop courses and software. The students all have paid part-time employment to offset the high tuition and living costs.
Graduate students are recruited en masse and only decide which faculty member to work with after 6 weeks during which they have had a comprehensive look at the research in the department. PhD degrees usually take 4-5 years to complete. Because of the collaborative nature of much of the work, many of the students have more than one supervisor. It was stated that having joint responsibility for a student is the best way of getting genuinely collaborative work. Whilst there is an effort to attract the best students, there is no requirement to have a high grade point average to join the PhD programme. Of approximately 60 graduate students, 50% are foreign. American graduate students largely come from other institutions on the recommendations of colleagues. They admitted to difficulties in attracting sufficient US graduate students because starting salaries for chemical engineers with a BS degree are ca. $45k whilst graduate stipends are around $18k. About 25% are female. Not all the students are from a chemical engineering background, one even being from classical piano!
Stipend and Expected Salary on leaving
All students are paid equally by the university at $18.6K along with payment of fees. On graduating they can expect salaries of $65K in industry or $70K in academia. The students are required to do duties as Teaching assistants.
All PhD students are registered initially as Masters students and have to pass pre-qualifying exams on eleven courses of which four are compulsory core subjects and the rest are chosen to fit the interests of the student. Normally thirteen people pass out of fourteen people sitting these exams. It is normal for students to take some courses in other departments. Almost no students do any significant research in their first year as a result of the courses and exams.
The faculty interviewed all stated that they look for the best first then look to the research field. They prefer people not to have too much overlap with current faculty. There were about 200 applicants for a recent post with about 5 serious contenders. Senior faculty are recruited through directed searches.
The department uses a number of post doctoral students but only 2 faculty carried out post docs themselves. A further faculty member has been hired but has deferred for post doc training before starting.
Start-up grants awarded recently have been up to $500K including 2 summer salaries, 2 PhD students, with laboratory space and selection of PhD students. Start-up grants for non-experimental researchers have been lower.
The quoted typical progression for a good faculty member was 6 years as an assistant Professor, 4 years as associate Professor and then full Professor. There don’t seem to be examples of people failing tenure. The process includes All commented that achieving tenure was a pressure.
All the staff seemed very helpful and approachable. They all consistently thought that they could get help when they needed it however there was no formal mentor system. The new faculty get the choice of the available PhD students to help them get started. A 2-3 year review gives a indication of performance and chance to improve if necessary.
They only lose about 1 faculty member in 5 years and except for the chairman current faculty have worked at UMass only. There seems to be a very friendly and happy atmosphere and everyone portrays that it is a very good place to work. Most junior staff were working 60-70 hours per week especially when they are preparing a class for the first time. The more senior staff worked about 40, although they did more administration. The typical split seemed to be one-third each on teaching, research and administration.
Design and synthesis of non-ideal liquid separations systems, crystallisation of organic materials, thermodynamics, non-linear analysis of bifurcation theories, process design of polymer processes and batch processes, integration of plant design and control, robust design of control systems, plant wide control, separation synthesis systems
Polymers- applied molecular and material modelling
Molecular theory of fluids contained in porous media, molecular theory of solid fluid phase equilibria
Reaction synthesis systems, transport processes, biochemical engineering, metabolic engineering, directed biosynthesis, signal transduction, metabolic modelling,
Funds are mostly from NSF, DOE, ACS Petroleum research fund and DOD. Some funding agencies are not funding Process Control. Agencies applied to for the new biochemical field are: Whittaker Foundation for biomedical research, NIH (National Institute for Health), Packard foundation and the Biomedical Foundation. One young member of faculty stated he puts in 5-6 proposals in a year with a 20% success rate. He also got money from industry from the design centre in the department.
All the faculty in the department collaborate with someone else in the department. There is also collaboration with the Polymer Centre on the Campus, however there is less collaboration with other departments. The inter-department collaborations that exist are with chemistry and new ones forming in Biochemistry and Microbiology.
The campus boasts a very well funded Polymer Centre, which has excellent facilities in a purpose-built tower block.
Industrial Collaboration/ Involvement
Industrial collaborations have developed over the years in the department, as their work has become known. They carry out few research contracts most of the gifts are towards continuing programmes or unrestricted gifts. The department has collaborations with 26 companies mainly through a consortium (Design Centre) and links with a large local company. The design centre funds $0.5m/year from companies gifting $25K annually. This money is given with no specifications on means of spending other than the member companies making suggestions for potential research areas. The consortium also provides of bi-annual meetings when progress of research is presented to member companies.
A General Electric Corp grant has a dual focus firstly to pay for a new classroom discussed later and secondly to fund time and resources for faculty to design the curriculum and software.
The Department takes great effort to develop links with Alumni for funding purposes.
Doherty, Cambridge (1977), U. Mass. (1979); Malone, UMass (1979); Monson, London (1979) Chemistry; Roberts, Cornell (1998); Ng Houston (1980); Zheng Caltech(1995); Vlades Minnesota(1992).