School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of HFUT began in 1958 as the Chemistry Department of HFUT. The School was renamed as Department of Chemical Engineering in 1994 and later adopted the current name in 2014. It is the earliest chemical department in Anhui Province to enroll chemical undergraduate and graduate students. Currently, the School has four departments and one center, namely, Department of Polymer Science, Department of Chemical Technology, Department of Applied Chemistry, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Technology Center.
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering has 99 qualified staff members, among whom 77 are full-time teachers and researchers (14 supervisors of PhD students, 63 supervisors of postgraduates), and over 80% of the faculty have a doctoral degree. Among the teachers are distinguished professors of “Yangtze Scholars Program", members of national “Thousand Young Talents”, members of New Century Excellent Talents Program of the Ministry of Education, Huangshan Scholars and Huangshan Young Scholars and full-time foreign experts. The School also commissions more than a dozen famous scholars and entrepreneurs from home and abroad as part-time professors, visiting professors and professional degree tutors, which plays a positive role in promoting international exchanges and cooperation, innovating educational idea and teaching content. The staff team highly qualified in knowledge, passion, competence, and innovation proves to be a fundamental guarantee to excellence in education.
At present, the School has 3 undergraduate specialties—Chemical Engineering and Technology, Polymer Materials and Engineering and Applied Chemistry, a first-class Master’s Degree Program—Chemical Engineering and Technology, 7 academic Master’s Degree Authorization Centers— Chemical Engineering, Chemical Technology, Applied Chemistry, Biological Chemical Technology, Industrial Catalysis, Materials Science, Polymer Chemistry and Physics, and 2 Professional Master’s Degree Programs— Chemical Engineering and Materials Engineering. The School also runs 3 doctoral programs in Material Science, Chemical Engineering, Biochemistry and Engineering. Currently, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering has more than 1,100 undergraduates (Hefei Campus only), over 450 master students and around 30 PhD candidates.
The School’s main objective is to empower the students with comprehensive professional essentials and to promote the innovation spirit and to cultivate independent skills in scientific research. In the past 56 years, the School has taught and trained more than 12,000 graduates, including a large number of engineering experts, entrepreneurs, scientists, etc.. For years, the employment rate of undergraduate students has remained above 95% and the success rate for postgraduate studies application is more than 30%. With solid academic foundation, strong practical skills, good comprehensive quality, spirits of innovation and social adaptation ability, the graduates of the school are highly valued by both the employers and the society in general.
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering attaches great importance to the reform of education and teaching. In recent years, the school has undertaken 2 provincial-level major education research projects, 4 provincial-level key projects and won 1 special prize, 2 first prize for provincial-level teaching achievements. In 2011, the major of Chemical Engineering and Technology passed the engineering education major certification of the Ministry of Education, and was selected as a Feature Major of Anhui province; in 2013, it became a trial major of Anhui province’s comprehensive discipline reform and the Ministry of Education’s Plan of Cultivating Outstanding Engineers. The major of Polymer Materials and Engineering, in 2011, was selected as a trial major of the Ministry of Education’s Plan of Cultivating Outstanding Engineers. Up to now, the school has been granted 30 national and 214 university undergraduate innovative training programs.
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering highly prioritizes the development of practical teaching and has several high-level laboratories and bases: the laboratory of basic chemistry, the laboratory of basic chemical technology and other professional laboratories; one analysis and testing center; the base of chemical design, the base of chemical basic skills training, the base of chemical engineering practice and innovation, and a variety of off-campus practice bases. Students of the School have won many awards in National Chemical Engineering Design Competition for College Students, and have made impressive achievements.
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering advocates that scientific research activities must cater to the national needs, putting equal emphasis on theoretical research and practical application. Each year the school undertakes more than 10 national research projects and over 60 provincial and other enterprises entrusted projects and dozens of invention patents are authorized; each year over 100 academic papers are published in international journals, some of which are published in JACS, Adv. Mater., Accounts Chem. Res., ACS nano, Small and other famous journals. More than a dozen of them are highly cited papers and one was selected as TOP 100 most influential international academic papers in 2012. Disciplines such as Chemistry, Material Science, Engineering, etc. rank among top 1% of ESI global research institutions. The School has been honored with 5 national and 60 provincial scientific and technological awards. To promote extensive cooperation and exchanges, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering has established stable collaborative relationships with a dozen of enterprises, such as Huaibei Mining, Tongling Nonferrous Metals, Hefei Pasen, Wuhu Ronghui, etc., which makes important contribution to the development of national and regional economy.
