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
Grit, Science, and Good Hands
Victus Kordorwu, PhD’26, chemical engineering, is a graduate researcher at the Advanced Drug Delivery Research and Lustig Lab at Northeastern. Driven by grit and a belief in science as a force for human good, he hopes to bridge academic research and industry experience to make an impact in the biopharmaceutical field—in the United States, Ghana, and beyond.
Two Northeastern Students Helping Increase IVF Success Through Co-op
Two Northeastern students––Jake Percival, E, mechanical engineering and bioengineering, and Tori Christianson, E, chemical engineering and bioengineering––are completing their co-ops at AutoIVF. They are working on a device that can find “hidden” egg cells in follicular fluid, helping to increase the chance of successful IVF by increasing the number of eggs retrieved.
Marriage Through the Challenges of Research
The love story of how two Northeastern ChE faculty, Associate Professors Abigail and Ryan Koppes, met and fell in love, and how that love has influenced their work since.
Chemical Engineering PhD Student Wins Merck Next Gen Leader and ACS Pharma Innovator Honors
Stephen Adepoju, PhD’27, chemical engineering, won both the 2026 Merck Next Gen Leaders in Chemistry award and the 2026 ACS Future Pharma Innovators distinction.