Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology

Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology

Churchill has a large and vibrant community of undergraduate and postgraduate chemical engineers and biotechnologists from around the world. The size of the community means that your supervisions would likely be with another Churchill student. In fact, quite often your supervisor will also have a link with Churchill.

The aim of the Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (CEB) course at Cambridge is to provide you with the scientific knowledge and skills that underpin modern chemical engineering. The Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology enjoys a reputation for excellence in its teaching and research and occupies a new state-of-the art building on the West Cambridge Site, very close to Churchill . The Department has strong links with industry and its graduates are in strong demand.

We have an active Engineering Community at Churchill, supported by our CORE (Community, Outreach and Recruitment in Engineering) Fellow, Rachel Thorley.

Entry Requirements

Course-specific information, including the University’s minimum offer level, can be found by selecting your course from the University’s Course List then looking at the “Entry Requirements” tab. The University’s Entrance Requirements and International Entry Requirements webpages may contain guidance relevant to you too.

At Churchill, we want to admit undergraduates who will thrive during their time here, so – in their interests – we tend to set conditional offers in line with the typical attainment of Cambridge entrants, by course. On average, this allows us to make a relatively generous number of offers per place, but it also means that our requirements are usually a little more rigorous than the University’s minimum offer level.

You can learn more about the academic profiles of Churchill entrants and our approach to setting conditional offers on our undergraduate applications page.

Admissions assessment

All Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology applicants are required to take the Engineering and Science Admissions Test (ESAT).

You must register for this in advance.

There’s more information on and linked from the University’s Admissions Assessments webpage and the University Admissions Tests UK webpage, including an overview, format, and practice materials.

Interview

The role of academic interviews in Churchill’s admissions process is explained on our interviews page. Our interviewers will be looking for evidence of enthusiasm for and a potential for aptitude in the subjects covered by the Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology Tripos.

Director of Studies

Dr Jethro Akroyd

Careers

As a Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology graduate, you will be highly employable and will have excellent career opportunities, because you will be experienced at solving problems and have good analytical and management skills.

You might perform ground-breaking scientific research, work as an engineer to produce products that improve the quality of human life, occupy a senior management position, or travel all round the world. In fact, you might go on to do all of these things during the course of your career.

Chemical engineers and biotechnologists are highly sought for their breadth of transferrable skills. Rather than working in traditional scientific or engineering roles, many Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology graduates also choose to pursue successful careers in a wide variety of other fields, including finance, consultancy and scientific journalism, to name but a few.

Studying Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at Churchill College

If Sir Winston Churchill’s mission for the College named after him was to ‘educate advanced technologists’, chemical engineers and biotechnologists were the kind of people he had in mind. Previous students regularly return to College to pass on their experience by running workshops and practice interview sessions for students, and to catch up with everyone over dinner.

Churchill’s chemical engineers and biotechnologists, and Churchillians in general, are sociable and inclusive, and play an active role in a strong College community. The College is well equipped with facilities including a large library, squash courts, tennis courts and playing fields on-site, making it a fun and healthy place to live as well as study. The College is located literally over the road from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology building on the West Cambridge Site, making it that bit easier to be there in time for 10 am lectures.

To support your learning, the College will provide you with a Director of Studies to oversee your academic development, and a Tutor to oversee your welfare and education in its fullest sense, both of whom will be Fellows of the College. Your Director of Studies and Tutor will form a view of your developing abilities, and advise on matters including course and career choices.

Chemical engineers and biotechnologists are people with a combination of science and engineering skills that are essential to answering the most important questions of the twenty-first century:

  • What action should we take to combat climate change?
  • How will we ensure access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy for everyone?
  • How will we produce enough food to end hunger, improve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture?
  • How will we ensure the availability and sustainable management of clean water for everyone?
  • How do we ensure sustainable production and consumption?
  • How can we ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing at all ages?
  • How do we make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable?

Researchers search for the answer to “can we do this?”. Chemical engineers and biotechnologists answer the question “can we do this for everyone?”. Many of the above challenges are easy to solve on a very small scale – the main challenge is often finding solutions that work efficiently and economically on an industrial, global scale.

Chemical engineers and biotechnologists have technical knowledge of chemistry, biochemistry, engineering, materials science, mathematics and information technology. They know about the environment and safety, about economics and management, and use the latest developments from science and computing to analyse and solve problems. They need this breadth of technical knowledge to be able to communicate and organise specialists to combine their expertise into scalable solutions.

Chemical engineers and biotechnologists devise, design, combine, and operate processes to produce and transport materials. From biofuels and batteries for clean vehicles, from sustainable energy to recyclable materials, from pharmaceuticals to foodstuffs, from the latest novel nanomaterials and advances in science – chemical engineers and biotechnologists make a positive difference to the world.

Here are are a few examples of how Cambridge chemical engineers and biotechnologists have made a difference to the world: