Chair's Message

Dr. Joel R. Fried

Welcome to the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Louisville. Ernst Hall has housed the Department of Chemical Engineering since 1967 and serves as the academic home to about 200 students, approximately 80% at the undergraduate level and 20% graduate students (ME, MS, and PhD). We have 12 full-time faculty members that include Director of the Conn Center for Renewable Energy and the Director of the Rapid Prototyping Center and 4 adjunct faculty members. In addition, we have been experiencing an unprecedented growth at the undergraduate level attributed to an increased national and international focus on energy generation and storage, excellent placement opportunities for our graduates, and our outstanding cooperative education program. The co-op program provides our undergraduate students with hands-on work experience by placing them in a structured, paid internships with local and national corporations. The history and current state of our department has been highlighted in a recent issue of Chemical Engineering and Education.

Chemical engineering faculty members are heavily invested in improving society through both educational and technical research. Technical research in our Chemical Engineering program emphasizes materials for renewable energy through its partnership with the Conn Center, as well as health engineering, including developing non-invasive disease diagnostic tools in conjunction with our medical colleagues. Research activities of our undergraduate and graduate students are supported by the outstanding facilities available in the Department, the Conn Center, the Rapid Prototyping center located also located in SPEED, as well in the interdisciplinary Shumaker Research Building that is located at a short distance on the Belknap campus. We recognize that students who become connected with contemporary engineering practice and research areas, through participation in industrial internships during their undergraduate years and the opportunity for research experience in both their undergraduate and graduate education, tend to perform better and have a higher level of persistence in their later professional life.

This is an exciting time for Chemical Engineering and for J. B. Speed School of Engineering as our country faces great scientific and technical challenges, the solutions to many of which will be found by Chemical Engineers.

Speed School chemical engineering graduates will play a key role in developing the world of the future where renewable energy is the norm and today’s diseases will be moderated by early detection. I invite you to join us as we build this world.

Joel R. Fried
Professor and Chair