Academics/PhD

PhD in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering with an Option in Pharmaceutical Engineering

The curriculum of the PhD in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering with an Option in Pharmaceutical Engineering is similar to the regular chemical and biochemical engineering curriculum except that there is no free choice of elective courses. Instead, the 5 required pharmaceutical engineering core courses become the required electives.

The PhD requires 30 credit hours of course work and 52 credit hours of research. Each course counts as 3 credit hours. The 30 credit hours of course credits are broken down into 5 core courses (15 cr) and 5 electives (15 cr) = 30 total credits.

After acceptance into the PhD program, a plan is established that maximizes use of regular ChemE core courses and Pharma elective courses. All research is to be done in pharmaceutical engineering. In special cases, some coursework may be substituted for research credits. On the average, students earn the PhD within a time span of 5 years, with the first two years dedicated mostly to course work and little research.

For the PhD with the Pharmaceutical Engineering Option, the following curriculum is followed:

5 Chemical Engineering Core Courses = 15 credits

• 155:501 Advanced Transport Phenomena I: Momentum Transfer
• 155:502 Advanced Transport Phenomena II : Heat and Mass Transfer
• 155:507 Analytical Methods in Chem. & Biochem. Engineering
• 155:511 Advanced Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics
• 155:514 Kinetics, Catalysis, and Reactor Design

5 Required Pharmaceutical Option Electives = 15 credits

• 155:545 Pharmaceutical Process Design I (Synthesis, Separation and Sterile Processing in the Pharmaceutical Industry)
• 155:546 Pharmaceutical Process Design II (Pharmaceutical Unit Operations)
• 155:547 Statistical Analysis and Design of Pharmaceutical Operations
• 155:549 Advanced Engineering, Pharmaceutical Kinetics, Thermodynamics and Transport Processes
• 155:541 Pharmaceutical Materials Engineering

Additional requirements must be met:

• All students must register for and attend the department seminar series
• Maintaining a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0 with no more than one (1) grade of C or less in the core courses
• Ph.D. candidates must spend two semesters as teaching fellows to satisfy the required teaching experience
• All graduate students in the Ph.D. program must take the qualifying examination, which is given at the end of the first year or after the completion of all Chemical Engineering Core courses, or whatever comes first. The exam may use a written or oral format, or both; the exam covers fundamental chemical engineering principles and may also include a research proposal.
• Students must follow the guidelines given by the department and the Graduate School of New Brunswick regarding the Thesis proposal, choosing the dissertation committee, writing the final PhD dissertation and defending it.