School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Our School brings together two closely related disciplines – chemistry and chemical engineering – opening up unique opportunities in both teaching and research. A friendly and supportive community, we host industry-standard facilities and offer high staff-student ratios, an award-winning placement programme and an open, collaborative research culture.

Unique school in England

Only school to combine chemistry and chemical engineering disciplines.

£1.7m Fluor pilot plant

One of few facilities of its kind at a UK university and replicates the entire chemical process.

Research that changes lives

Our research aims to solve global challenges in sectors such as energy, food, healthcare and crime.

Award winning chemical plant training at Surrey | University of Surrey

Study with us

As a student in the School you’ll benefit from timetabled weekly tutorials, excellent personal support and a variety of innovative teaching methods. We put a strong focus on ‘learning by doing’ through extensive lab work, and team and individual projects.

Explore courses by level

Our undergraduate and postgraduate courses enable you to specialise in an area that fascinates you, and prepare you for a career in industry or research.

Chemical Engineering Society football team

Explore our societies

During your time at Surrey you have the opportunity to join numerous societies. Take a look at the chemistry and chemical engineering societies we offer.

Research excellence

In the latest UK Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021), we ranked 15th in the UK for ‘*research power’ in engineering.

Overall, Surrey has risen 12 places in the rankings since 2014 to 33rd in the UK for our research quality.

* Research power is the overall quality of submissions, calculated by grade point average and multiplied by the full-time equivalent number of staff submitted.

Our research

Our research is strongly interdisciplinary and ranges from fundamental science to commercialisation of technological innovations. We have successful research collaborations across the School, the University and with other academic institutions and industry in the UK and worldwide.

Research themes

Research in the School brings together many different disciplines and is focused on solving the global grand challenges we face today in sectors such as energy, water, environment, healthcare and food.

Research centres and groups

Our research centres and groups bring together experts in chemical engineering, chemistry and other disciplines to tackle specific challenges including the development of future chemical plants based on robotics and AI.

Facilities

We have recently invested heavily in new laboratories and equipment for teaching and research. We proudly offer a wide range of advanced facilities for student and research use, including our Fluor pilot plant, analytical laboratories, NMR spectrometers, X-Ray diffractometers, and materials characterisation facilities. Launching in 2023, our Energy Hub will underpin our research in green energy including battery technology, energy storage and green hydrogen.

Chemistry facilities

Chemical engineering facilities

Meet the team

We are a friendly and diverse community of academic and research staff, tutors and administrators, supported by dedicated staff across the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences and the University.

Professor Adrian Dobbs

Head of School

Adrian studied Chemistry at King's College London, obtaining his B.Sc. (1st Class Honours) in 1992 and PhD in 1996, the latter under the supervision of Professor Keith Jones and working on the development of heteroaryl radicals in synthesis (sponsored by SmithKline Beecham). He was awarded a Royal Society European Research Exchange Fellowship for post-doctoral work with Professo...

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