Chemical and Biological Engineering

Modeling and computation are a vital component of scientific research--theory, simulation and computer-aided analysis are used to understand and design phenomena that range across a dramatic range of scales in space and time, from molecules to entire chemical plants. The ongoing explosion in high-performance scientific computing, coupled with spectacular advances in algorithm development for problems in computational statistical mechanics, bioinformatics, multiscale modeling and the quantification of uncertainty, transform the role of the modeler in modern chemical engineering.

Within the department, pioneering computational and algorithm development research occurs in several areas: the development of systematic computational approaches to protein folding, the development of novel computational ensembles in statistical mechanics and the exploration of glassy landscapes and dynamics, the coarse-graining of multiphase flow equations and the development of new closures for them, the development of coarse, equation-free computation for multiscale/complex systems and the exploration of dynamic, nonlinear pattern formation in developmental biology. The University encompasses a vibrant, open and collaborative community of modeling/computational researchers and applied mathematicians across disciplines (see also the Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics).