Our department

Established in 1967, the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering has evolved alongside social and economic change over the decades, ensuring that our curriculum and values remain relevant to the engineering profession. Our undergraduate degree is accredited by both Engineering NZ and IChemE (Institute of Chemical Engineers), making the quality of our education internationally-recognised.

Chemical and Materials Engineering involves building and sustaining the world around us, as well as designing new materials for the future. Our department exposes students to a wide variety of viewpoints and hands-on teaching and learning styles, with academic staff that consistently rank amongst the top teachers in the faculty.

Our goal is to prepare and train you with the skills needed to be leaders of the future and solve real-world, multidisciplinary problems. We offer an undergraduate degree that uniquely integrates the core concepts underpinning both chemical/process engineering and materials engineering, making it a broader programme than traditional chemical engineering courses.

Our programmes are geared to equip graduates to establish themselves in a huge range of careers including the energy sector, minerals and metals, forestry, the food and dairy industries, environmental engineering, biotechnologies and nanomaterials, to name just a few. We also boast a diverse intake of students across our programmes, with a strong female representation at our department overall, at 30%.

The department has a strong international reputation for the quality of its research activities, offering doctoral and masters opportunities in a wide range of research fields.