Find opportunities to work on treating cancer and making vaccines, to be stewards of the environment by discovering more efficient uses of energy and upcycling of polymer waste, to produce and store green energy, to invent better materials for separations and for artificial organs that prolong healthy lives in a cleaner environment.
Welcome you to the SCBME website! I hope that you will share my excitement for our academic program our research and that you will feel the energy from the accomplishments of our students and faculty.
At SCBME we are deeply invested in academic excellence and individual student success. Collaboration is the driving force behind our School’s progress. Our commitment to excellence is reflected in our statistics: a faculty roster of 20 members, maintaining a faculty-to-student ratio of 9.5:1, with 190 undergraduate students, 124 graduate students and 20 postdocs. During the last few months, SCBME faculty obtained funding from quite competitive sources, such as the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health, as well as from the industry significantly enhancing our research impact.
We work on developing cancer and virus therapeutics, new materials and new sources for energy production and storage, cleaner and more efficient separation processes, and we lead collaborations across the campus and the Nation. Last Fall, we welcomed the class of 2028, along with 30 new online MS students and 13 PhD students, in addition to Dr. Ahmad Al-Douri, our most recent faculty member. Dr. Al-Douri’s research is focused on process design, optimization and systems resilience in the chemical industries.
Our on-line MS program on “Sustainability: Energy and Materials Management” is expected to graduate its first students in May. Our new PhD program on Materials Science and Engineering and our new graduate and undergraduate certificates on Bioprocessing are underway, reflecting our dedication to staying at the forefront of our field and to providing state-of-the-art training to our students.
Looking ahead, we anticipate even more remarkable accomplishments as we continue to grow and build. Last spring, we said goodbye to our seniors, all of whom had jobs or post-graduate opportunities with an average salary of $86,500. We renewed our ABET accreditation in January 2024, as we offer four directions in our undergraduate studies: Standard, Biotechnology, Sustainability and Pre-Med. Current and future students, keep these options in mind as you get to your advising sessions!
I urge our undergraduate students to take advantage of exciting research in our School. Find opportunities to work on treating cancer, to discover more efficient uses of energy in the industry, to upcycle polymer waste, to produce and store energy, to invent better materials for separations and for artificial organs that prolong healthy lives in a better environment. Looking into 2025, our School has multiple research scholarships for undergraduate researchers, as does the Gallogly College of Engineering. We also have scholarships through the Program of Excellence at SCBME, awarded to over 45 students per year. Keep an eye out for the AIChE and the CHEGS activities. Try not to miss them.
Be involved and have fun learning!
Dimitrios Papavassiliou
