Chemical engineering is addressing pressing challenges to advance society such as biomedicine, energy, security, and sustainability. Join an R1 research institution and work alongside accomplished faculty in the heart of Boston - a hub for biotech, medical institutions, high tech, and academia.
Innovative Education and Research
Offering rigorous yet flexible academics and top-ranked experience-powered learning to develop the next-generation of chemical engineering leaders.
Academic Offerings
Chemical engineering encompasses a broad range of cutting-edge research allowing them to work at the intersection of a variety of different fields, including biology, chemistry, energy, physics, materials science, and other engineering disciplines.
Hub of Innovation
From being in the heart of the city of Boston with industry and the world's top hospitals, to a range of active student organizations and a network of faculty, alumni, and industry professionals, the Department of Chemical Engineering offers a welcoming and exciting community.
Engaged Student GroupsSpotlight Stories
ARPA-E IGNIITE Award for Biofuel Innovation
ChE Assistant Professor Benjamin Woolston was selected as one of 18 awardees to receive $500K for his project “Combining aerobic and anaerobic metabolism in a single bioreactor for transformative biofuel production metrics from C1 feedstocks” as part of ARPA-E 2025 Inspiring Generations of New Innovators to Impact Technologies in Energy (IGNIITE) program.
Engineering in Action
Chemical Engineering Research Co-op in Switzerland
Chemical Engineering student Hannah Boyce shares her unique experience conducting research abroad at ETH Zurich, one of Europe’s leading biotech institutions.
PhD Research for Impact
With a dream of curing breast cancer, Chinedu Okorafor, PhD in chemical engineering, took full advantage of her Northeastern University curriculum and surrounding biotech centers in Boston. Northeastern’s interdisciplinary approach—sparking collaborations among the sciences—helped her chart her own course toward a degree with many possible rewarding applications.
Reaching Career Goals
For Haroon Bukhari, MS in chemical engineering, the Northeastern experience culminated in a co-op at Rogers Corporation, an innovator in engineered materials. Focusing on applications including electric vehicles, he’s already building a career toward making green technologies safer, more efficient, and more cost-effective.
World-Renowned Cooperative Education
Bradley Priem, BS in chemical engineering, had two co-ops that gave him the ability to delve into a particular industry. At Synlogic he was a bioanalytical chemist and bacterial engineer creating e-coli strains, and at bluebird bio he was an upstream process development engineer for gene production. He now knows he wants to go into the biotech industry and is interested in graduate school too.
Recent News
ChE PhD Student Wins NSBE and ACS Honors
Lawrence Ajayi, PhD’27, chemical engineering, has received the 2025–2026 Ramboll Flourish Scholarship from the National Society of Black Engineers, which supports students pursuing degrees in engineering, natural sciences, or architecture who plan to study abroad for a semester. He also received the 2025 Graduate Student Award in Environmental Chemistry from the Environmental Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society, which recognizes graduate students who are working in areas related to environmental chemistry.
2026 Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship Recipients
Tristan Bernard, E’27, mechanical engineering, and Ian Rocha, E’25, chemical engineering, are recipients of the Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship, which enables students of limited financial means to study or intern abroad, providing them with skills critical to our national security and economic prosperity.
ChE Student Receives 2026 Condit Award
Grace Autumn Jansen, E’28, chemical engineering, won the Sears B. Condit Award, which is awarded annually to one student from each of Northeastern’s undergraduate day colleges and is one of the highest honors that a junior or senior at Northeastern University can receive.
2026 Laurel and Scroll 100 Inductees
Twenty-nine engineering graduate students were inducted into the Laurel and Scroll 100, a society established in 2024 to honor exceptional graduate and professional students who were or are in the final year of their Master’s/PhD program across Northeastern’s global university system.