The Department of Chemical Engineering has been in existence since 1960 with the first batch of students graduating in 1965. Over the past four decades, the department has trained and produced engineering manpower of the highest quality by international standards. Many of the graduates are now in top positions in the industry, R & D organizations and academia. Imparting quality education, and inculcating scientific temper and high professional ethics have been, and continue to be the hallmarks of the department. Indeed, the motto of the department is aptly described by "nurturing excellence for 39 years".

The department offers undergraduate (B.Tech.) and postgraduate (M.Tech. & Ph.D.) programmes in Chemical Engineering. On an average, about 40 to 45 B.Tech. degrees are awarded every year. The three-semester M.Tech. degree programme attracts about 35 to 40 new students each year. About 3-4 Ph.D. degrees are conferred every year. Efforts to start a dual degree programme (B.Tech.-cum-M.Tech. in 5 years) have been initiated. Graduates of these three programmes are in great demand in Indian industry as well as in top universities around the world.

The current faculty comprises 17 members, excelling in their areas of interest, which not only span traditional core areas but are also the cutting- edge frontiers of modern chemical engineering, including novel separation processes, new and innovative materials and catalysts, modelling, simulation and control of chemical process plants, polymer science, rheology and engineering, safety and risk analysis, colloid science and interfacial phenomena. The commitment of our faculty members to teaching and research is exemplary. Such a diverse range of expertise available in the department is reflected both in the research profile and the variety of elective courses available to undergraduate and postgraduate students.Likewise, the research tradition is deep-rooted. For instance, the undergraduate students do a year- long research project in the final year. There is an active seminar programme which endeavours to bring eminent speakers from India and abroad to spend some time in the department.

The output of research papers by faculty members of the department in refereed international journals has been more than 25 per year since 1973. This is in addition to 24 books authored by them (with more in progress) and published by reputed publishing houses in India and abroad.

Due to the deep commitment to research, over the years, a wide variety of experimental facilities have been developed in the department. Apart from the modern and well-equipped undergraduate teaching laboratories, the department has a range of analytical instruments (digital refractrometer, GPC, HPCL, thermogravimetric analyser, goniometer for contact angle measurements, surface area, pore size and pore size distribution analysers, Haake viscometer, high precision densitometer, etc.) as well as pilot-scale well- instrumented equipment for process control, liquid-liquid extraction, etc. In addition, the department has added to its resources, data acquisition systems for on-line process control, simulation packages such as ASPEN + SPEEDUP, MATLAB and LABVIEW

The department has a long tradition of working closely with a number of industries and government agencies. The main modes of such interaction are high level consultancy work, sponsored projects and short term courses. In recent years, several of our faculty members have offered their services to companies like Duncans, Gas Authority of India, Indian Oil Corporation, Centre for High Technology, Gujarat State Fertilizers Corporation, Indian Petrochemical Corporation Ltd., Madras Refineries, Cochin Refineries, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd., Supreme Paper Mills and United Brewery. Likewise, typical short term courses which have proved to be highly successful include those on design of heat-exchangers, hazard analysis in chemical industry, computer control of chemical processes, simulation, optimization and control. On occasion, tailor-made courses for specific organisations have also been offered. The interactions with government agencies often are in the form of undertaking funded research as well as, by serving on their advisory councils. These agencies include DST, CSIR, ARDB, Planning Commission, DBT and CSE.

The reputation of the department is constantly on the rise, as reflected by the number of individual as well as overall recognition bestowed on its faculty and hence the department. Some of these include election of faculty members to the fellowships of The Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (1987, 1998), the National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad (1987), and the Indian National Academy of Engineering (1998). The prestigious Herdillia Award of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineering for excellence in basic research in Chemical Engineering has been received by its faculty on six occasions (1980, 1986, 1987, 1992, 1996, 1998). Some of the other awards received include the Amar-Dye Chem Award of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers for excellence in Research & Development (below the age of 35 years), twice (1988, 1995); the NOCIL Award of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers for excellence in process plant and design, twice (1 983, 1 989); the Maharashtra State National award of ISTE for excellence in research, once (1996); and the R&D award of the Institution of Engineers, UP Chapter for excellence in Research twice (1996, 1997). A recent ranking of the best 600 Chemical Engineering departments in the world based on the research papers and their impact, conducted by KAIST, Seoul, South Korea has shown the department to be not only number one in India (as also revealed in India Today surveys) but also at par with several renowned departments such as U. Mass, Amherst and UMIST, Manchester in UK.

The department has been continually readjusting and adapting itself in response to the ever changing environment. The department continues to make vigorous efforts to further enhance its interaction with academic institutes, research organisations and leading chemical industries. It is hoped that with these efforts, the department will continue to maintain its eminence as the best chemical engineering department in the country.

ONGOING RESEARCH PROJECTS

Equilibrium, Dynamics and Morphology of Thin Films; Software for Hazard Analysis; Membrane Separation Processes; Design and Modelling of a Gas Distribution System; Development of Support Bound Vanadium Catalysts for Oxidation Reactions; Optimizing Control of Free-Radical Polymerization Reactors; Molecular Level Engineering of Supported Metal Oxide Catalysts; Fundamental Studies Using Supported Rhenium Oxide Catalysts for the Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Pentane; Development of the Methodology for Object Oriented Modelling & its Software Implementation for Chemical Engineering Processes; Applications of Genetic Algorithm, Combinatorial Chemistry and Biocatalysis to New Drug Discovery; Membrane Separations; Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Propane; Extraction of Aromatics from Petroleum Naphthas; R & D Work in Advanced Control; Development of Coke Inhibitors for Pyrolysis Furnaces; District-wise Hazard Analysis of MAH Industries in Bhopal; Optimization of a Semibatch Nylon-6 Reactor; Purification and Concentration of Lignosulfonates from Black Liquor by Membrane Processes.