Chemical Engineering Degree

What is Chemical Engineering?

Chemical engineering deals with the design and development of procedures to create products – products essential to sustaining modern life such as food and fuel. It is the application and combination of chemistry, biology, physics, and math to solve today's most pressing problems.

What does a chemical engineer do?

Chemical engineers take raw materials and create every day, usable products crucial to modern society. They do this by applying the principles of chemistry, biology, physics, and math to solve the problems that occur during the production of chemicals, fuel, drugs, food, and a myriad of other products.

With a degree in chemical engineering from South Dakota Mines, you can work in jobs that increase crop yields to combat world hunger, create new materials, reduce pollution, and meet energy demands. Chemical engineers (as well as biological engineers) are instrumental in creating pharmaceuticals and lifesaving devices such as the artificial kidney, but they also produce products like cosmetics, biofuels, and sandwich bags.

Courses for this Degree

• Programming for Chemical and Biological Engineering
• Chemical Engineering Material Balances
• Chemical Engineering Fluid Mechanics
• Chemical Engineering Process Thermodynamics
• Computer Applications in Chemical Engineering
• Chemical Engineering Heat Transfer
• Chemical Engineering Equilibrium Thermodynamics
• Chemical Engineering Process Control Lab
• Chemical Kinetics and Reactor Design
• Chemical Engineering Equilibrium Separations

Course Curriculum

Catalog Links: Chemical Engineering

Internships and Co-ops

As a South Dakota Mines chemical engineering major, you will have the opportunity to participate in internships and co-ops with such companies as:

• Cargill
• POET
• Lyondell Basell
• Applied Control Equipment
• Baker Hughes
• Dow Chemical
• 3M
• Freeport McMoRan
• Kimberly-Clark
• Baker Hughes
• Mosaic Company
• Cabot Microelectronics Corporation

77% of students at Mines land internships or co-ops, earning an average hourly salary of $20.00.

Career Outlook

Chemical engineers are in high demand, especially chemical engineering graduates from South Dakota Mines. The average starting salary for a Mines chemical engineering graduate is $69,083. The job placement rate for 2020-21 South Dakota Mines chemical engineering graduates was 90%.

Careers

South Dakota Mines chemical engineering grads are in high demand due to the large number of industries that depend on the synthesis and processing of chemicals and materials. Our grads work in a variety of fields, including:
• Chemical, energy, and oil industries
• Biotechnology
• Environmental engineering
• Pharmaceuticals
• Electronic device fabrication
• Wine making
• Manufacturing of nanocomposites, polymers, materials, chemicals, or food

Employers

As a South Dakota Mines chemical engineering grad, you will have the opportunity to work with such companies as:

• Cargill
• POET
• Dow Chemical
• Savannah River Remediation
• Tate & Lyle
• Genesis Alkali
• Halliburton
• Freeport McMoRan
• Chobani
• Naval Surface Warfare Center
• Puget Sound Naval Shipyard
• Wipro

Chemical Engineering Research

As a chemical engineering major at South Dakota Mines, you don’t have to wait to participate in research. As an undergraduate, you will have the opportunity to learn from and do research with professors and researchers in the following areas:

• Bio- and Renewable Energy and Fuels
• Biomaterials
• Biomedical Engineering
• Bioprocessing and BioChemical Engineering
• Catalysis and Reaction Engineering
• Complex Fluids and Soft Solids
• Computer Simulation and Modeling
• Environmental and Remediation
• Molecular Biology and Biotechnology
• Nanotechnology
• Polymers
• Separations
• Thermodynamics