Chemical Engineering Resources for Masters Students
Chemical engineers are expected to have a well-rounded knowledge of chemistry, the biological sciences, mathematics, and process optimization to solve workplace problems and design products efficiently, economically, and safely. Whether you are currently teaching undergraduate classes, getting your masters degree, or juggling the two, take advantage of the resources you find here to assist you in responsible study of the theories and applications behind chemE’s major branches. Stay abreast on the latest field news by following these links to professional organizations and periodicals.
Once you obtain an engineering degree, you’ll find that an extremely wide range of career opportunities awaits you.
Engineering Tool Kit: Calculators, Converters and Tables
ChemEng Calculator provides a free online calculator where you can input data to determine physical properties, fluid flow, heat transfer, equipment sizing, mass transfer, economics and unit conversion. Likewise, Jim Martindale has posted an exhaustive collection of online calculators to aid chemical engineers of every stripe, whether your specialty is mass transfer or catalytic conversion. If you need a quick pocket-sized conversion, consider the chemistry calculator application. This application is available at iTunes for $0.99 and comes loaded with 38 chemistry solvers for things like gases, solutions, atomic and nuclear chemistry, thermodynamics, and acids and bases. Additionally, look no further for a list of engineering-specificunit converters.
Need to reference a periodic table of the elements? The following interactive periodic tables provide background on the properties of each element including condensed information on isotopes and orbitals. Check out the Photographic Periodic Table, Dynamic Periodic Table, and ACS Periodic table.
During your research you may encounter certain terms in dated texts that have fallen by the wayside. Use this Archaic chemistry terms glossary to bring your definitions up to speed. And don’t get hung up on lengthy or obscure chemical compounds when you have a chemical compound abbreviation database at your disposal. Simply input an abbreviation like “DMF” and the archive will tell you that stands for:
- N,N-dimethylformamide
+ (CH3)2N-CHO
In a similar vein, you can insert an unknown acronym like “LID” into this acronyms and abbreviations database to find out that it stands for Laser-Induced Desorption.
Lab Supplies and Safety
Use these resources to carry out lab work (and to teach it to others) responsibly. Find the chemical supplied you need at City Chemical or Dow Chemical. You can use the Hazmat Navigator to quickly determine properties of hazardous materials, as well as the MSDS Solutions Database for millions of free MSDS sheets.
Consult National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) or the International Society of Automation for information on instrument standards.
If you run into trouble in the lab, the ChemicaLogic Corporation is a technical consulting firm that has served the chemical industry since 1995. You can also use the Online Ethics Center to guide you in designing responsible experimentation. After your lab work, you can find help with professional-grade lab write-ups and Scientific Style and Format from the Council of Science Editors. And if it’s a particularly successful experiment, you’ll want to look into Patent Information.
Related Fields and Professional Organizations
American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering
Applied Mathematics and Science Education Repository
Biological Sciences Pathway
Chemical Education Pathway
ComPADRE Physics and Astronomy Resources
eFluids: Fluid Engineering
Engineering Pathway
National Center for Biotechnology Information
Geopolymer Institute
Materials and Electrochemical Research Corporation
International Center for Heat and Mass Transfer
Nuclear Engineering Division, AIChE
Particle Technology Research Centre
Additionally, Open Culture allows you to download a selection of free audio and video engineering courses to your computer.
Teaching Resources
The American Chemical Society provides an outstanding list of chemistry education resources with specific categories to help you teach undergraduate courses, graduate courses, or classes at the community college level.
The Chemical Engineering Education journal is a resource specifically written to help you teach courses in chemical engineering. You’ll find archives of previous issues as well as subscription information.
The Safety and Chemical Engineering Education (SAChE) program teams up the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS)and various engineering schools to supply teaching materials, methods, and programs that bring process safety techniques into both undergraduate and graduate education for students who are studying chemical and biochemical processes and products.
Careers and Higher Education
Once you’ve made it out of the classroom, you’ll need to figure out your next step: more education or entering the work place.
If you’re interested in pursuing further higher education, check out the List of Best Chemical Engineering schools as ranked by US News. This chart provides a handy comparison of in-state and out-of-state tuition rates as well as the average GRE score of students who attend school there so you’ll know what you might be up against.
When you’ve finished your degrees and are ready to start a career in the workplace, you don’t have to do it alone. Check out the job boards from the American Chemical Society, Chemical Engineer, and Center for Chemical Process Safety for jobs posted both in the United States and abroad. As a bonus, the job board at Engineer Jobs will email new jobs in chemical engineering directly to you.
Periodicals
Stay on top of new developments in your field by keeping up with trade journals. At ACS Publications you can browse through trade journals related to your field either alphabetically or by subject area, as well as obtain access to obsolete journals. The American Chemical Society also publishes Chemical and Engineering News weekly, and Chemical Engineering Progress is a magazine published by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. The AIChE Journal is the peer-reviewed journal by the same institute. Elsevier’s Chemical Engineering Journal allows you to register and purchase scientific articles, as well as submit your own for peer review.
Chemical Week supplies chemical engineering news including a useful industry events calendar.
Finally, Chemical Product and Process Modeling publishes original research in the product and process modeling. The site contains information for authors, abstracts and an index to published papers. Subscribers can download full papers.
Photo Credit Wikimedia Commons
