The Department of Chemical Engineering is committed to excellence in teaching, research, and service to the profession and the community. We are a medium-sized department with 18 faculty members, 190 undergraduates, and 79 Ph.D. students. Our department is widely recognized among the very best in the country - recently ranked 2nd by the National Research Council. Five of our 18 faculty members have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

As indicated in our Mission Statement, we are dedicated to excellence in teaching and research. Our student-to-faculty ratio is exemplary and all ChE courses are taught by faculty. The undergraduate program is fully accredited. The many advantages of attending UCSB are described in the Undergraduate and Graduate sections of the web site.

Department research activities are at the cutting edge in many exciting areas. Modern engineering research tends to be interdisciplinary and many of our faculty members have joint appointments in other departments. Our research funding (over 25 million dollars in 2006) comes from a wide variety of companies and government agencies. By participating in faculty research projects, undergraduate and graduate students have opportunities to perform exciting research and create new knowledge. For more information on our research activities, see the Research section of the web site.

Our students and faculty are fortunate to have excellent and dedicated Department staff, who play a critical role in the smooth functioning of the Department. The members of our administrative and technical staff are listed in the staff section. The Department also benefits from the guidance and expertise provided by our very distinguished External Advisory Committee.