Chemical Engineering (Ph.D.)
Offered by: Chemical Engineering (Faculty of Engineering)
Degree: Doctor of Philosophy
Program Description
The Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering focuses on advanced materials and polymers, biomedical engineering and biotechnology, environmental engineering, energy, plasma science and artificial intelligence-assisted design and optimization. The program offers advanced training in fundamentals as well as research methods and techniques, laboratory safety and research ethics.
Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.
Thesis
A thesis for the doctoral degree must constitute original scholarship and must be a distinct contribution to knowledge. It must show familiarity with previous work in the field and must demonstrate ability to plan and carry out research, organize results, and defend the approach and conclusions in a scholarly manner. The research presented must meet current standards of the discipline; as well, the thesis must clearly demonstrate how the research advances knowledge in the field. Finally, the thesis must be written in compliance with norms for academic and scholarly expression and for publication in the public domain.
Required Courses (4 credits)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CHEE 681 | Laboratory Safety 1. | 1 |
Laboratory Safety 1. Terms offered: Summer 2025 The basics of laboratory safety in a chemical engineering laboratory. Mandatory safety orientation (administration, contacts, fire, waste, emergency procedures) and official WHIMIS training. | ||
| CHEE 682 | Laboratory Safety 2. | 1 |
Laboratory Safety 2. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Demonstration of the safety of students' thesis experiments to the departmental safety committee. | ||
| CHEE 687 | Research Skills and Ethics. | 2 |
Research Skills and Ethics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The course provides a foundation in three areas: (i) integrity and ethical conduct, (ii) knowledge dissemination and translation, and (iii) research management. Ethical considerations in situations involving conflict of interest, authorship, and intellectual property attributions are discussed. Students will gain experience in identifying and selecting key information for different situations. Best practices in data reporting, maintenance of research notebooks and legal aspects of data ownership and rights are discussed. | ||
| CHEE 795 | Ph.D. Thesis Proposal. | 0 |
Ph.D. Thesis Proposal. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Independent work under the supervision of the thesis advisor(s) leading to a thesis proposal. | ||
| CHEE 796 | Ph.D. Proposal Defence. | 0 |
Ph.D. Proposal Defence. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Presentation and defence of thesis proposal at an oral examination. | ||
| CHEE 797 | Ph.D. Seminar. 1 | 0 |
Ph.D. Seminar. 1 Terms offered: Summer 2025 Presentation of a seminar on an aspect of the Ph.D. candidate's research thesis work. | ||
| CHEE 798 | Ph.D. Seminar 2 | 0 |
Ph.D. Seminar 2 Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Presentation of a seminar on an aspect of the Ph.D. candidate's research thesis work. | ||
Complementary Courses (6-12 credits)
6-12 credits at the 500 level or higher, in consultation with the supervisor and depending on student's background. May include the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CHEE 611 | Heat and Mass Transfer. | 4 |
Heat and Mass Transfer. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. General conservation equations for volumes and interfaces; scaling analysis and approximate solutions to diffusion problems; reaction-diffusion processes; phase changes; convective heat and mass transfer; selected advanced topics. | ||
| CHEE 621 | Thermodynamics. | 4 |
Thermodynamics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Theory and application of phase and chemical equilibria in multicomponent systems. | ||
| CHEE 631 | Foundations of Fluid Mechanics. | 4 |
Foundations of Fluid Mechanics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Rigorous derivation of equations of motion; creeping flow inviscid flow; boundary layer theory; hydrodynamic stability; turbulent flow, separated flows, drag on submerged bodies. | ||
| CHEE 641 | Chemical Reaction Engineering. | 4 |
Chemical Reaction Engineering. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Interpretation of chemical reaction data, especially for heterogeneous systems. Residence time, complete segregation, maximum mixedness, other advanced concepts. Reactor design. | ||
| CHEE 651 | Advanced Biochemical Engineering. | 4 |
Advanced Biochemical Engineering. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The use of chemical engineering and biological principles in the study, design, use and creation of biologically-based processes and products. Topics: biochemical thermodynamics, protein engineering, manipulation of gene expression, transport phenomena and bioreactor design. | ||
| CHEE 662 | Computational Methods. | 4 |
Computational Methods. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Methods of weighted residuals; solution to non-linear algebraic equations; stability in nonlinear equations; bifurcations; mesh refinement strategies; convection dominated transport; hyperbolic equations, particle simulation methods. | ||
| CHEE 672 | Process Dynamics and Control. | 4 |
Process Dynamics and Control. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Process representation and identification and simulation; sensor stability; sensitivity of feedback control systems; feedward control; discrete representation of continuous systems; controller tuning; adaptive control. | ||
| CHEE 688 | Advanced Materials in Chemical Engineering. | 4 |
Advanced Materials in Chemical Engineering. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Fundamentals of materials science and engineering for chemical engineers,applying thermodynamic, transport, reaction kinetics principles to thesynthesis, characterization and performance of advanced nano-, micro- and meso-structured materials, polymer solutions, gels, colloidal dispersions, emulsions, natural materials, bio-inspired materials, and composites. Applications of advanced materials in chemical engineering, including design for sustainability, and environmental/health considerations. Critical analysis of contemporary advanced-materials research literature. | ||