Engineer

Engineer in Chemical Engineering

The degree of Engineer is awarded after the completion of a minimum of 90 units of graduate work beyond the B.S. degree and the satisfactory completion of all University requirements plus the following departmental requirements. Application to this program is open only to active chemical engineering M.S. or Ph.D. candidates. This degree is not a prerequisite for the Ph.D. program. 

Unit and Course Requirements

A minimum of 90 completed units is required, including a component of a minimum of 45 units in science and engineering courses, consisting of 42 lecture units and 3  CHEMENG 699 Colloquium units.  The required CHEMENG courses are listed below.

The additional lecture courses, (24 units), may be chosen from graduate level science and engineering courses according to the guidelines given in the "Master's opens in a new tab" section and with the consent of the graduate curriculum committee chair and the department chair. In fulfilling the required 45-unit requirement for lecture course units, the course work may not include chemical engineering's 500 level seminar courses or similar 1-2 unit courses in other departments. The remaining 45 units are primarily research units.

Students seeking the Engineer degree may petition to add a M.S. program and apply for the M.S. degree once the requirements for that degree have been fulfilled. See General Requirements in the “Graduate Degrees opens in a new tab” section of this bulletin and Chemical Engineering’s “Master's opens in a new tab” section.

Reading Committee Requirement

All candidates are required to have an initial meeting with their reading committees by the end of their ninth quarter. The committee must have a minimum of two members, both of whom are Chemical Engineering faculty members. The reading committee meetings are intended to be discussion sessions, to help to focus and guide the thesis project; they are not examinations.

Students are responsible for reporting meeting dates to departmental student services.

Thesis Requirement

The thesis must represent a substantial piece of research equivalent to nine months of full-time effort and must be approved by the student's reading committee.

Qualification for the Ph.D. Program by Students Ready to Receive the Degree of Engineer

After completing the requirements for the Engineer degree, a student may petition to be examined on the research work completed for that degree, for the purpose of qualifying for admission to Ph.D. candidacy. If the petition is approved, the student’s thesis must be approved by the reading committee and available in its final form for inspection by the entire faculty at least two weeks prior to the scheduled date of said examination.