2009-2010 Bulletin – PDF - SEAS Bulletin - Columbia University

a minor in biomedical engineering may
do so by taking BMEN E4001 or E4002;
BIOL C2005; BMEN E4501 and E4502;
and any one of several chemical engineering
courses approved by the BME
Department. See also page 189.
GRADUATE PROGRAM
The graduate program in chemical engineering,
with its large proportion of elective
courses and independent research,
offers experience in any of the fields of
departmental activity mentioned in previous
sections. For both chemical engineers
and those with undergraduate
educations in other related fields such
as physics, chemistry, and biochemistry,
the Ph.D. program provides the opportunity
to become expert in research
fields central to modern technology and
science.
M.S. Degree
The requirements are (1) the core courses:
Chemical process analysis (CHEN
E4010), Transport phenomena, III (CHEN
E4110), and Statistical mechanics
(CHAP E4120); and (2) 21 points of
4000- or 6000-level courses, approved
by the graduate coordinator or research
adviser, of which up to 6 may be
Master’s research (CHEN 9400).
Students with undergraduate preparation
in physics, chemistry, biochemistry,
pharmacy, and related fields may take
advantage of a special two-year program
leading directly to the master’s
degree in chemical engineering. This
program enables such students to avoid
having to take all undergraduate courses
in the bachelor’s degree program.
Doctoral Degrees
The Ph.D. and D.E.S. degrees have
essentially the same requirements.
All students in a doctoral program must
(1) earn satisfactory grades in the three
core courses (CHEN E4010, CHEN
E4110, CHAP E4120); (2) pass a qualifying
exam; (3) defend a proposal of
research within twelve months of passing
the qualifying exam; (4) defend their
thesis; and (5) satisfy course requirements
beyond the three core courses.
For detailed requirements, please consult
the departmental office or graduate
coordinator. Students with degrees in
related fields such as physics, chemistry,
biochemistry, and others are encouraged
to apply to this highly interdisciplinary
program.
Areas of Concentration
After satisfying the core requirement of
Chemical process analysis (CHEN
E4010), Transport phenomena, III (CHEN
E4110), and Statistical mechanics
(CHAP E4120), chemical engineering
graduate students are free to choose
their remaining required courses as they
desire, subject to their research adviser’s
approval. However, a number of areas of
graduate concentration are suggested
below, with associated recommended
courses. Each concentration provides
students with the opportunity to gain
in-depth knowledge about a particular
research field of central importance to
the department. Graduate students outside
the department are very welcome
to participate in these course concentrations,
many of which are highly interdisciplinary.
The department strongly
encourages interdepartmental dialogue
at all levels.
Science and Engineering of Polymers
and Soft Materials. Soft materials
include diverse organic media with
supramolecular structure having scales
in the range 1–100 nm. Their small-scale
structure imparts unique, useful macroscopic
properties. Examples include
polymers, liquid crystals, colloids, and
emulsions. Their ‘‘softness’’ refers to
the fact that they typically flow or distort
easily in response to moderate shear
and other external forces. They exhibit
a great many unique and useful macroscopic
properties stemming from the
variety of fascinating microscopic structures,
from the simple orientational order
of a nematic liquid crystal to the full periodic
‘‘crystalline’’ order of block copolymer
mesophases. Soft materials provide
ideal testing grounds for such fundamental
concepts as the interplay between
order and dynamics or topological
defects. They are of primary importance
to the paint, food, petroleum, and
other industries as well as a variety of
advanced materials and devices. In
addition, most biological materials are
soft, so that understanding of soft materials
is very relevant to improving our
understanding of cellular function and
therefore human pathologies. At Columbia
Chemical Engineering, we focus on several
unique aspects of soft matter, such
as their special surface and interfacial
properties. This concentration is similar
in thrust to that of the ‘‘Biophysics and
Soft Matter’’ concentration, except here
there is greater emphasis on synthetic
rather than biological soft matter, with
particular emphasis on interfacial properties
and materials with important related
applications. Synthetic polymers are
by far the most important material in
this class.
CHEE E4252: Introduction to surface and colloid
chemistry
CHEN E4620: Introduction to polymers
CHEN E4640: Polymer surfaces and interfaces
CHEN E6620y: Physical chemistry of macromolecules
CHEN E6910: Theoretical methods in polymer
physics
CHEN E6920: Physics of soft matter
Biophysics and Soft Matter Physics.
Soft matter denotes polymers, gels,
self-assembled surfactant structures,
colloidal suspensions, and many other
complex fluids. These are strongly fluctuating,
floppy, fluidlike materials that
can nonetheless exhibit diverse phases
with remarkable long-range order. In the
last few decades, statistical physics has
achieved a sound understanding of the
scaling and universality characterizing
large length scale properties of much
synthetic soft condensed matter. More
recently, ideas and techniques from soft
condensed matter physics have been
applied to biological soft matter such
as DNA, RNA, proteins, cell membrane
surfactant assemblies, actin and tubulin
structures, and many others. The aim is
to shed light on (1) fundamental cellular
processes such as gene expression
or the function of cellular motors and
(2) physical mechanisms central to the
exploding field of biotechnology involving
systems such as DNA microarrays and
methods such as genetic engineering.
The practitioners in this highly interdisciplinary
field include physicists, chemical
engineers, biologists, biochemists, and
chemists.
The ‘‘Biophysics and Soft Matter’’
concentration is closely related to the
‘‘Science and Engineering of Polymers
and Soft Materials’’ concentration, but
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SEAS 2009–2010