Info for High School Students
What is Chemical and Biological Engineering?
Chemical and Biological Engineering (CHBE) is an interdisciplinary field of study dedicated to solving problems involving the principles of chemistry and biology using mathematical and engineering approaches. CHBE brings these areas of knowledge to bear on what can be very diverse and complex problems. Typical examples of chemical and biological engineering challenges are listed below:
- Designing bioreactors to grow cells that express pharmaceutical compounds
- Designing or discovering molecules or materials at nano-scale level that can speed up desired chemical reactions (known as catalysis)
- Developing fuel cells and other alternative energy methods to alleviate concerns with energy supply and climate change
- Discovering and developing environmentally sustainable processing technologies for the oil and gas industry
- Developing methods to clean up pollutants (gaseous, liquid and solid) and/or to prevent the generation of pollution during chemical processing
- Developing mathematical methods and tools for computer based simulation, optimization and control of various chemical processes (e.g., to optimize processes in the pulp and paper industry, etc.)
- Designing materials that help to separate different molecules during the synthesis of chemicals and pharmaceuticals (i.e., separation technologies)
- Designing microsystems to perform genetic detection of harmful bacteria more quickly and with greater sensitivity than is currently possible
As noted above, all of these challenges require knowledge of chemistry, biology, and mathematics. If you want to know more about the specific classes you need to take to major in CHBE, please click here. All CHBE challenges require knowledge of calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, organic and physical chemistry, and biology (including molecular biology, biochemistry, and sometimes genetics).
