Faculty at Rutgers Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering (CBE) conduct research in several areas that involve the study of biological processes, materials structure, and manufacturing processes within the parameters of chemistry, biology, physics, and engineering. Our research labs include a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Engineering Research Center (Center for Structured Organic Particulate Systems), an NSF funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) in Advanced Materials, a NIH/Rutgers funded Biotechnology Training Program, a Pharmaceutical Engineering Training Program, and a Catalyst Manufacturing Center. Research facilities are among the finest in the world and include cutting-edge instrumentation/equipment to support undergraduate/graduate research and education.
Research Areas
Nanomedicines & Systems Biology
Research in this area focuses on developing and applying knowledge and tools of nanotechnology to the prevention and treatment of disease. This includes the use of nanoscale materials such as biocompatible nanomaterials for the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of disease. Research also focuses on the computational and mathematical analyses and modeling of complex biological systems to understand the bigger picture of biological interactions via the use of novel tools such as bioinformatics and machine learning.
Faculty: C. Roth, H. Buettner, I. Androulakis, P. Moghe
Pharmaceutical Process & Systems Engineering
Research in this area focuses on developing a fundamental understanding of pharmaceutical and particulate-based processes from a process and systems engineering perspective. This includes 1) Development of advanced modeling tools to design, simulate and optimize various unit operations for the efficient production of pharmaceutical and particulate processes, 2) Material and powder characterization of solid dosage forms and 3) Development of a fundamental understanding of hydrodynamics and heat and mass transfer in multi-phase unit operations.
Faculty: F. Muzzio, R. Ramachandran, N. Shapley, R. Singh, J. Scicolone, S. Razavi
Energy & Pharmaceutical Catalysis
Research in complex fluids and nanostructured materials has strengths in the areas of synthesis and fabrication of key materials for efficient industrial catalysis applied to energy and pharmaceuticals. Specific research aspects include 1) Design, synthesis, and self-assembly of novel inorganic nanomaterials and organic-inorganic hybrid nano-structured, nano-porous, and nano-biomaterials, and 2) Investigation of interactions with fluids with nano-structured materials over a wide range of scales utilizing modern methods of statistical mechanics and interfacial thermos and hydrodynamics.
Faculty: F. Celik, B. Glasser, G. Tsilomelekis, T. Asefa
Bioengineering, Bioimaging & Industrial Biotechnology
Research in this area involves developing fundamental physicochemical understanding of biological processes and translating the knowledge into the efficient design of therapeutically and industrial important products and processes. This is accomplished by interweaving the fields of molecular cellular biology with principles of physical chemistry and process engineering. Real-time sensors and measurements are also developed to non-invasively visualize biological processes efficiently, without physical interference.
Faculty: S. Chundawat, B. Schuster, H. Zhang, H. Pedersen
Molecular Modeling & Soft Matter Simulations
Research in this area focuses on modeling the motion and interaction of atoms and molecules to predict the macroscopic properties of soft matter. These can range in applications from energy to materials to bio-therapeutics. Soft matter applications can be complex to study experimentally due to the scale of atomistic and molecular interactions. As a result, we seek to develop novel computational models to understand the behavior of these systems.
Faculty: A. Neimark, S. Tomassone, M. Dutt, G. Dignon
Engineering Education
Research is undertaken to advance teaching knowledge and principles in engineering practice. We aspire to prepare engineering students with the core skills needed in an increasingly complex and technologically driven society. New courses are created, and existing courses are modified to provide students technological and broader understanding needed to enter the workforce. Students will be exposed to real engineering projects throughout their undergraduate and graduate education in addition to internships, co-ops, and multi-disciplinary courses.
Faculty: A. Bertuccio, J. Robbins