Chemical Engineering No More

The Department of Chemical Engineering is facing its last year at Princeton.

Not to be too worried, though, since starting July 1, 2010, the department will officially be known as the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering.

Richard Register, chair of the Department of Chemical (and Biological?) Engineering, noted that the fields of chemical engineering and biology have had everlasting ties, citing specifically the fact that fermentation processes were “discovered millennia ago.” In any case, this will be the department’s first name change since the department was established 80 years ago, in 1930.

“Adding ‘biological’ to our name makes a public statement,” Register added.