Chemical Engineering. — The Department of Chemical Engineering was separated from Metallurgical Engineering at the end of the 1970-71 year. In 1940 Chemical Engineering activities centered on the application of engineering sciences in petroleum exploration, production, and refining. Later, the curriculum emphasized fuels and furnaces, technology of industries, materials, unit operations, and independent research. Core courses now include thermodynamics, rate operations, separations processes, and material properties, while laboratory experience and equipment and process design continue to receive emphasis. Numerous computer applications came to the forefront in the 1960s. Interest in petroleum continues; new areas include biochemical and biomedical engineering, process dynamics, pollution control, ultrasonics, catalysis, the accurate measurement of enthalpies, and polymer rheology.
The University of Michigan, an Encyclopedic Survey Supplement, Page 133.
