Research Areas

Research focus areas in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering include absorption and surface chemistry, advanced materials, alternative energy and biofuels, biochemical engineering and biotechnology, computational molecular science and engineering, nanoscience and nanotechnology.

 

Vanderbilt represents one of the most exciting research environments in the United States. Vanderbilt is #13 in the US News and World Report rankings, and despite its small size, it is ranked in the top 25 in total U.S. federal funding. Vanderbilt is one of only 13 universities that rank in the top 25 in both of these categories. The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering conducts pioneering research in the areas of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Engineering, Computational Science and Engineering, Energy and Sustainability, and Materials and Nanotechnology. Our faculty collaborate closely with researchers in other departments and institutes  across campus including the  Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) , the  Multiscale Modeling and Simulation (MuMS)  research facility, and the  Vanderbilt Institute for Nanoscale Science and Engineering (VINSE) . The Department's graduate program ranks in the top 5 of the US News and World Report rankings when compared to departments of similar size (15 or fewer tenured/tenure-track faculty). Research expenditures in the Department exceed an average of $500,000 per tenured/tenure-track faculty in per year, and the Department averages ~5 peer-reviewed articles per tenured/tenure-track faculty per year. These metrics are just a few important indicators of the thriving and productive research environment that exists within the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Vanderbilt.