Addressing Global Challenges
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.
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Experiential Learning
Offering rigorous yet flexible academics and top-ranked experience-powered learning to develop the next-generation of chemical engineering leaders.
Academic Offerings
Interdisciplinary Research
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
Vibrant Community
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
Fall 2026 PEAK Experiences Awardees for Undergrad Research
Several engineering and science students mentored by COE faculty are recipients of the Fall 2026 PEAK Experiences Awards from Northeastern’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.
Rebecca Kuntz Willits Named AIChE Fellow
Rebecca Kuntz Willits, chairperson and professor of chemical engineering at Northeastern University, has been named a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), the organization’s highest membership grade. The distinction, awarded through election by AIChE’s Board of Directors, recognizes Willits’s extensive experience in chemical engineering and her sustained service to the profession.
Empowered by Service: Teaching Boston’s Kids to Think Like Engineers
Catherine Connolly, E’28, chemical engineering, serves as the president of Roxbury Robotics, an engineering service-learning club. As she navigates structural and logistic changes to the club, she highlights their recent successes, and the reasons why she is devoted to the cause.
Five ways 3D printing is improving lab work
ChE/COS Assistant Professors Magda Barecka was featured in the Nature article “Five ways 3D printing is improving lab work.”