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Research & Impact

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Chemical Engineering Research Areas

Stanford’s Department of Chemical Engineering works on technologies to develop chemical transformations and processes, creating useful products and materials that improve society. We turn our expertise in producing and manipulating chemicals to energy, medicine, electronics, and materials with new properties under the umbrella of three thematic research areas: life, energy, and the environment.

Life. Energy. Environment. Our robust thematic research areas and associated groups and centers give students hands-on opportunities to explore, solve, and apply core academic knowledge in real-world scenarios and design impactful careers for the future.

Learn more about our Chemical Engineering Faculty. 

Faculty Spotlight

Danielle Mai
Assistant Professor

Danielle Mai

I’m a biopolymer engineer, which means I tinker with molecules that are the building...

Brian Hie
Assistant Professor

Brian Hie

I find working at the intersection of multiple disciplines to be incredibly thrilling and...

Why Stanford ChemE?

Many resources are available for you.

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ChemE Research Groups

Our collaboration culture drives innovative discoveries in areas vital to our world, our health, and our intellectual life. Through the development and application of engineering principles, we are tackling the major challenges of the 21st century.

Clark Center

Research & Training Centers

Stanford Chemical Engineering department is associated with a number of experimental facilities and training opportunities. The research groups within our department benefit from the unique research environment at Stanford.

Research & Ideas

Explore the latest ideas coming out of Stanford’s Chemical Engineering department. See the impact of this important research on the world around us.

3D-printed DeSimone Lab logo in black and white

Joseph DeSimone: New high-speed microscale 3D printing technique

A new process for microscale 3D printing creates particles of nearly any shape for applications in medicine, manufacturing, research and more.

Two sets of hands stretching out a skin-like, stretchable electronic device.

Zhenan Bao: Smaller, more powerful stretchable electronics for wearables and implantables

Stanford researchers have developed soft integrated circuits that are powerful enough to drive a micro-LED screen and small enough to read thousands of sensors.