Our History

The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering had its real beginning in about 1950. It is now the third largest of six departments within the Faculty of Engineering. The staff complement of the department is made up of 43 academic and research staff, 12 administrative staff and 10 technical staff. Of the academic and research staff, only one quarter are teaching and research appointments, the others are research fellows including postdoctoral appointments.

The principal teaching activity of the Department is the provision of courses to students of the Bachelor of Engineering degree. A new unitised course which has been introduced gradually is now in place and comprises seven units per semester. Within the next two years the system of units throughout the majority of the University will be unified and will be four units per semester.

The philosophy behind the current program was to provide flexibility in the course to include the possibility of students taking a language at each level as well as being able to major in either Mineral Engineering or Biochemical and Environmental Engineering.

Chemical Engineering at the University of Melbourne:
History and Development, 1952 - 2002

The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering is compiling a history of the department.

If you are a former student please fill in the questionnaire > here

The first graduates in Chemical Engineering at the University of Melbourne completed their course in 1952. According to one of the first graduates, Dr. Werner Strauss "About second term 1950, the late Professor Henderson spoke to the class about doing a new Chemical Engineering course. Those of the class in third year would do some small extra subjects to be given the following year, together with some new candidates from the then second year. This was to be in addition to their full science course third year, and the year after they would be sent to Melbourne Technical College for their Chemical Engineering education" (1). There were five graduates. In fact, graduates from 1952 to 1960 were produced, as Bob Yost observes "without a department and without any chemical engineering staff" (2).

From such humble beginnings, the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering is now a large and successful University Department. There are now several Professors, including a Laureate Professor, several centres of research excellence, a new extension to the Chemical Engineering building constructed in the late 1960's, almost 500 undergraduate students and over 80 postgraduates.

A research project is currently being conducted (3) to investigate the origins and development of the Department over the past 50 years. As part of this project, we are seeking input from graduates via a questionnaire to establish how they viewed their time in the Department and how they feel about chemical engineering.

Graduates of the Department are encouraged to complete the history questionnaire, located here.

references

• (1) Chemical Engineering Students' Society Magazine, 1966
• (2) Chemical Engineering Students' Society Magazine, 1987
• (3) A book and a Master of Arts thesis will be written on the history of the Department. The Master's project is being conducted by Joan Gravina and supervised by Professor Stuart Macintyre, Dr. Fay Anderson and Associate Professor David Shallcross.

further information

please contact Joan Gravina
by phone 8344 7744 or email