Chemical Engineering History

Undergraduate Program | Graduate Program | Postdoc
A major gift from Arnold Beckman, founder of Beckman Instruments and a Caltech trustee, has established the Beckman Institute, an endowed laboratory on the campus that fosters research at the frontiers of chemistry and biology. Caltech faculty members can participate in the Institute's activities if their research falls into this category.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, located in Pasadena, is NASA's prime center for unmanned space exploration. NASA established a special fund, the President's Fund, to promote cooperative research between the academic faculty and JPL staff. A number of research projects in the department of Chemical Engineering at Caltech have been carried out in collaboration with JPL.
Five members of our faculty are members of the National Academy of Engineering. Three members of the Caltech chemical engineering faculty have received the Allan P. Colburn Award of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, given to honor outstanding research achievements before the age of 35. Four of the faculty have been Dreyfus Foundation Teacher-Scholars, five have been NSF (National Science Foundation) Young Investigators, and one is an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator. Also, one faculty member is the first engineer to win the prestigious NSF Alan T. Waterman Award.
Division faculty members have received other major awards of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, including the William H. Walker, Professional Progress, and Wilhelm Awards, and have been recognized by research awards from the American Chemical Society, the American Society for Engineering Education, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.