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Howard P. Isermann Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
School of Engineering
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York
 Detailed InformationPrograms of StudyThe Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering has a premier program in chemical and biological engineering. The program shows a shift in emphasis that has occurred over the last few years, with increasing focus on biological systems, molecular engineering, nanotechnology, and alternative energy. The faculty includes internationally recognized leaders in biocatalysis and bioseparations, molecular dynamics, polymer chemistry and engineering, nanotechnology, process modeling and control, interfacial phenomena, and heat and mass transfer.
The major educational objective in the Howard P. Isermann Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering is to prepare students to enter their engineering practices dealing with chemical as well as physical processes to meet future challenges. Opportunities for creative and satisfying practice in chemical and biological engineering can be found in conception, design, control, or management of processes involving chemical and/or biochemical transformations. These processes range from the more conventional conversion of crude oil into petrochemicals and plastics to the development of novel processes for the production of biopharmaceuticals to the creation of lab-on-a-chip devices using nanomaterials.
The Department offers Master of Science (M.S.), Master of Engineering (M.Eng.), and Ph.D. degree programs. The curriculum, which builds on chemistry, biology, mathematics, basic sciences, and engineering science, culminates in professional applications in which theory is tempered by engineering art and economic principles. Through this curriculum, graduates are prepared equally well for professional practice or for advanced study.
The graduate programs offer flexibility–students tailor their programs to fulfill their individual goals and needs. Students are encouraged to use electives to conduct intensive studies in one or more subdisciplines or specialties. Cross-disciplinary studies using courses offered by other departments or schools at Rensselaer are also encouraged. The educational process thrives on close student-faculty interactions and leads to the transition from student to peer, from novice to colleague.
The M.S., which requires a thesis, may be used for professional entry but is also well suited to students who wish to measure their ability to get a Ph.D. without commitment of extra time beyond that required for an M.S. A special optional master’s program is available for this purpose. For the M.S., 30 credits of graduate-level studies, including 6 credits for the thesis, are normally required. However, the thesis requirement may vary from 3 to 9 hours at the discretion of the Department.
The M.Eng. degree involves formal course work only and does not require a thesis. This degree is awarded on completion of 30 credits of course work.
The Ph.D. degree represents the highest level of academic preparation. With it, a student can expect to maintain technical competence and contributions throughout a professional career. It is usually the preferred degree for research and development in industry and government and for teaching. Within the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, 72 credits of graduate-level studies, including the dissertation, are required for a Ph.D. The emphasis is on advanced study in a specialty with major focus on the dissertation. A doctoral student must pass a comprehensive examination, prepare a dissertation proposal and the dissertation itself, and present and defend the dissertation. Research FacilitiesResearch is supported by state-of-the-art facilities and equipment, including the Rensselaer Libraries, whose electronic information system provides access to collections, databases, and the Internet from campus and remote terminals; the Rensselaer Computing System, which permeates the campus with a coherent array of more than 7,000 nodes of distributed laptops, desktops, advanced workstations, and servers; a shared toolkit of applications for interactive learning and research and high-speed Internet connectivity; one of the country’s largest academically based, class 100 clean room facilities; high-performance campuswide computing facilities that allow for serial or parallel computation; and five core laboratories for molecular biology, proteomics, bioimaging, and tissue engineering.
Rensselaer’s research capabilities have been enhanced with the addition of the Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations (CCNI). The result of a $100-million collaboration with IBM and New York State, the CCNI is the world’s most powerful university-based supercomputing center and a top-ten supercomputing center of any kind in the world. The CCNI is made up of massively parallel Blue Gene supercomputers, POWER-based Linux clusters, and Opteron-based clusters, providing more than 100 teraflops of computational muscle and approximately a petabyte of shared online storage.
Other facilities and research centers include the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies; the George M. Low Center for Industrial Innovation; research centers for integrated electronics, terahertz science, nanotechnology, fuel-cell and hydrogen research, lighting research, science and technology policy, and infrastructure and transportation studies; the Geotechnical Centrifuge Research Center; the Darrin Fresh Water Institute; and the Scientific Computation Research Center. In addition, academic departments and faculty laboratories have extensive discipline-specific research capabilities and equipment.
The Department maintains extensive research and instructional laboratories that house special and unique equipment developed for specific studies as well as extensive analytical and optical instrumentation, minicomputers, and microcomputers. Several research areas involve participation and cooperation with other departments. These include polymer studies with the Departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Chemistry, fermentation and other biochemical research with the Department of Biology, studies in fluid mechanics with the Department of Mathematics, polymer membrane fabrication with the Department of Chemistry, and research on lubrication and other interfacial phenomena with the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Department research programs also use a number of major university facilities, including the Center for Polymer Synthesis, the Rensselaer Exploratory Center for Cheminformatics Research, the Center for Biotechnology, the Center for Integrated Electronics, and the Center for Future Energy Systems. Financial AidFinancial aid is available in the forms of teaching and research assistantships and fellowships, which include tuition scholarships and stipends. Rensselaer assistantships cover the academic year, with summer support available in many departments. University, corporate, or national fellowships fund many of Rensselaer’s full-time graduate students. Outstanding students may qualify for university-sponsored Rensselaer Graduate Fellowship Awards, which carry a minimum stipend of $22,000 and a full tuition and fees scholarship. All fellowship awards are calendar-year awards for full-time graduate students. Low-interest, deferred-repayment graduate loans are available to U.S. citizens with demonstrated need. Cost of StudyFull-time graduate tuition for the 2008–09 academic year is $36,950. Other costs (estimated living expenses, insurance, etc.) are projected to be about $13,680. Therefore, the cost of attendance for full-time graduate study is approximately $50,630. Part-time study and cohort programs are priced differently. Students should contact Rensselaer for specific cost information related to the program they wish to study. Living and Housing CostsGraduate students at Rensselaer may choose from a variety of housing options. On campus, students can select one of the many residence halls and immerse themselves in campus life or choose from a select number of apartments designed for graduate students only. There are abundant, affordable options off campus as well, many within easy walking distance. Student GroupOf the 1,176 graduate students, 29 percent are women, and 92 percent are full-time, with 75 percent of full-time graduate students studying at the doctoral level. Student OutcomesRensselaer’s graduate students are hired in a variety of industries and sectors of the economy and by private and public organizations, the government, and institutions of higher education. Their starting salaries average $74,807 for master’s degree recipients and $82,750 for Ph.D. recipients. LocationLocated just 10 miles northeast of Albany, New York State’s capital city, Rensselaer’s historic 275-acre campus sits on a hill overlooking the city of Troy, New York, and the Hudson River. The area offers a relaxed lifestyle with many cultural and recreational opportunities, with easy access to both the high-energy metropolitan centers of the Northeast–such as Boston, New York City, and Montreal, Canada–and the quiet beauty of the neighboring Adirondack Mountains. The InstituteRecognized as a leader in interactive learning and interdisciplinary research, Rensselaer continues a tradition of excellence and technological innovation dating back to 1824. Rensselaer has five schools–Architecture, Engineering, Management, Science, and Humanities and Social Sciences–that offer more than 100 graduate programs in over forty-eight disciplines that attract top students, researchers, and professors. The discovery of new scientific concepts and technologies, especially in emerging interdisciplinary fields, is the lifeblood of Rensselaer’s culture and a core goal for the faculty, staff, and students. Fueled by significant support from government, industry, and private donors, Rensselaer provides a world-class education in an environment tailored to the individual. ApplyingThe admission deadline for the fall semester is January 1. Basic admission requirements are the submission of a completed application form (available online), the required application fee ($75), a statement of background and goals, official transcripts, official scores on the GRE General Test, TOEFL or IELTS scores (if applicable), and two recommendations. The Faculty and Their Research
- Georges Belfort, Russell Sage Endowed Professor; Ph.D., California, Irvine. Membrane separation processes (cross-flow filtration, fouling, module design, affinity adsorption, membrane surface modification, NMR flow imaging), adsorption processes (proteins and polysaccharides from solution onto solids), biocatalysis (bioreactor design for cells and enzymes), bioseparations (gene-fusion proteins). (belfog@rpi.edu)
- B. Wayne Bequette, Professor; Ph.D., Texas at Austin. Development of systems engineering techniques for a wide variety of chemical, biological, and biomedical systems, with applications ranging from health care to renewable energy; modeling and control of nonlinear systems, with a major focus on model predictive control algorithms. (bequette@rpi.edu)
- Marc-Olivier Coppens, Professor; Ph.D., Ghent (Belgium). Novel ways to “structure” fluidized beds and other multiphase reactors, design and synthesis of new hierarchical and biomimetic porous materials, study of transport in porous materials (zeolites, mesoporous materials, protein crystals, ion channels). (M.O.Coppens@tudelft.nl)
- Steven M. Cramer, Professor; Ph.D., Yale. Novel bioseparation techniques for simultaneous concentration and purification of biomolecules: detailed analysis of thermodynamics and transport involved in these processes as well as a fundamental investigation into the nature of affinity in these nonlinear chromatographic systems, with a major focus on displacement chromatography–a technique that takes advantage of the nonlinearity and competitive nature of the adsorption of biomolecules at high concentrations. (crames@rpi.edu)
- Jonathan S. Dordick, Howard P. Isermann Professor; Ph.D., MIT. Ways to combine biomolecules such as proteins, peptides, and nucleic acid into nanomaterial networks, using biocatalysis and biorecognition, for example, to create nanotube-protein structures that could be used as nanometer-sized reactors for chemical/biological reactions; using self-assembly techniques to create new organic-inorganic assemblies approaching biological complexity in architecture and function to apply to tissue engineering, catalyst arrays, heavy-metal sensors, and 3-D nanofabrication strategies for electronic, magnetic, and photonic materials. (dordick@rpi.edu)
- Arthur Fontijn, Research Professor; Ph.D., Amsterdam. Kinetics of atom and free-radical reactions in the gas phase: combustion chemistry, gaseous metal species reactions, high-temperature reactions, and kinetic spectrometry. (fontia@rpi.edu)
- Shekhar Garde, Professor; Ph.D., Delaware. Molecular thermodynamics and simulations of biological systems, statistical mechanics of liquids and polymers, and solvation phenomena, especially in aqueous solutions (water structure, hydrophobic interactions), with focus on understanding and modeling the role of water structure in inducing interactions among various hydrophobic, polar, and ionic molecules that ultimately lead to many important self-assembly processes in water. (gardes@rpi.edu)
- Ravi Kane, Associate Professor; Ph.D., MIT. Investigating and solving problems in medicine and biology by the molecular engineering of materials and surfaces, particularly modulating interactions between biological surfaces by using soft materials–functionalized polymers and elastomers. (kaner@rpi.edu)
- Robert J. Linhardt, Professor and Senior Constellation Chair in Biocatalysis and Metabolic Engineering; Ph.D., Johns Hopkins. Complex carbohydrates: glycoprotein, proteoglycans, and other glycoconjugates are prepared by fermentation using recombinant technology, extraction from tissues, or chemical and enzymatic synthesis to determine their structure and to study their biological activities in order to establish a structure-activity relationship for the possibility of using these molecules as lead compounds for new drug development. (linhar@rpi.edu)
- Lealon L. Martin, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., UCLA. Understanding and quantification of chemical and biological systems and toward the development of systematic methodologies for their modeling, synthesis, analysis, and, ultimately, their optimal design: synthesis strategies for pollution prevention and integrated resource recovery, optimal design of separation processes for solid systems, heat and mass integrated power generation and refrigeration cycle synthesis, and biological process network synthesis. (lealon@rpi.edu)
- E. Bruce Nauman, Professor; Ph.D., Leeds (England). Polymer reaction engineering and polymer blends; nanoparticles, nanobiotechnology, nanothermodynamics, and nanofluidics; multicomponent diffusion, MD, and DPD simulations; systematic design of polymer blends; dynamics of phase ripening. (nauman@rpi.edu)
- Joel L. Plawsky, Professor; Sc.D., MIT. Thin films applied to photonic, microelectronic, and micro heat and mass transfer devices; new methods for concrete and mortar production. (plawsky@rpi.edu)
- Susan T. Sharfstein, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Berkeley. Biotechnology, biochemical engineering, cellular engineering, tissue engineering. (sharfs@rpi.edu)
- Peter M. Tessier, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Delaware. Bioengineering, biophysics, biological protein aggregation, bionanotechnology. (tessip@rpi.edu)
- Major Research Centers
- The Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies is a 218,000-square-foot, $100-million facility that encourages collaboration among many diverse academic and research disciplines. The center’s faculty members and researchers are engaged in interdisciplinary research focused on the application of engineering and the physical and information sciences to the life sciences. The core research facilities within the center contain laboratories for molecular biology, analytical biochemistry, microbiology, imaging, histology, tissue and cell culture, proteomics, and scientific computing and visualization. The center contains both a 600- and an 800-MHz nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer and the computing and visualization infrastructure needed to model molecular structure at the atomic level.
- The Center for Future Energy Systems benefits the energy industry of New York State by focusing on research and development, technology transfer, economic development, workforce training, and entrepreneurial support. The activities at the Center for Future Energy Systems are initially concentrated on two main themes: energy efficiency and new energy sources. Within these themes, four technology areas–fuel cells and hydrogen, renewable energy, smart lighting, and smart displays–are currently being investigated.
- The Center for Integrated Electronics (CIE) is advancing the electronic devices of everyday lives. By making significant contributions to the science and technology of interconnects, devices, architectures, and packaging, CIE is accelerating the production of the next generation of microelectronic and nanoelectronic devices and systems. The center’s mission is to build integrated top-down and bottom-up nanostructures, devices, and systems for information, biological, and broadband communication applications. Major activities include pioneering research into gigascale interconnects, 3-D interconnect structures, materials properties and process modeling, wideband gap semiconductors and devices, terahertz devices and imaging systems, power electronic devices and systems, and biochips. CIE comprises five electronics technology subcenters that conduct research in a variety of complementary disciplines: the New York Center for Advanced Interconnect Science and Technology (NY CAIST), the Center for Power Electronics Systems (CPES), Focus Center–New York, Rensselaer (FC-NY), the Center for Microcontamination Control (CMC), and the Center for Broadband Data Transport Science and Technology. Each subcenter includes participation from numerous universities nationwide as well as from major U.S. corporations.
- The New York State Center for Polymer Synthesis, dedicated in 1998, houses advanced technology for the discovery, scale-up, processing, and evaluation of unique polymers needed by many industries. The center’s focus is grounded in three areas: ground-breaking research, corporate and government partnerships, and undergraduate and graduate education. The CPS is a multifaceted state and national resource in polymer science and engineering, primarily in synthesis but also processing, recycling, reaction engineering, and composites fabrication and property evaluation. Faculty members at the Polymer Center are superior, energetic teachers and mentors who are also immersed in cutting-edge research in the polymer field–making new polymers that could revolutionize or create entirely new industries. The future implications of this research are limitless, from achieving plug-in power for fuel cells to biomedical applications that could help diagnose and treat many diseases.
- The Rensselaer Exploratory Center for Cheminformatics Research (RECCR) brings together and stimulates collaborative pilot projects among a constantly evolving nucleus of experts in cheminformatics-related fields, ranging from methods of encoding and capturing molecular information to machine learning and data-mining techniques to predictive model development, validation, interpretation, and utilization. The center also unites a set of domain specialists and application scientists to serve as both data generators and end-users of the knowledge provided by the molecular property models and modeling methods developed by RECCR. This group also tests the new cheminformatics software developed at RECCR. The center emphasizes the central role of cheminformatics in modern biotechnology efforts, molecular design projects, and bioinformatics programs. RECCR will seed new interdisciplinary projects and train graduate students in these areas, as its overall goal is to continually advance the field of cheminformatics research and develop descriptors, machine-learning methods, and infrastructure for extending the reliability and applicability of informatics-based prediction techniques.
Correspondence and InformationRensselaer Polytechnic Institute Howard P. Isermann Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering Ricketts Building 110 8th Street Troy, New York 12180 Telephone:
518-276-6377 Fax:
518-276-4030
Email:
che_grad_info@rpi.edu
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