School of Chemical and Material Engineering

The School of Chemical and Material Engineering, Jiangnan University, has a long history and a good academic reputation in the domain of applied colloid and surface chemistry, especially in surfactant-related science and technology, and is well known by the industrial fields of fine chemical engineering and daily chemical engineering in China. The School was renamed in 1999 and grew out of Department of Chemical Engineering，one of the earliest discipline in Wuxi Institute of Light Industry founded in 1958. The Fine Chemical Engineering speciality is on the first list of specialities which were authorized to award M.S. degree by the State Council in 1981, and was assessed as a key discipline of the Ministerial level in 1983. Since its foundation, a series of specialities have been established, including daily chemical engineering, organic synthesis of light industry, fine chemical engineering, essence & fragrant material and cosmetics and hairdressing etc., and thousands of qualified engineers and technicians have graduated from the school and devoted their life to industrial and technical fields of fine chemical engineering and daily chemical engineering, especially to surfactant/detergent and surfactant-related industries. The school has been a base of bringing up highly educated engineers and technicians for these fields in China.

The school posses an strong and structure-optimized staff team. Currently there are totally 124 staffs in the school of which 95 are academic staffs, including 2 double-post holding academicians, 1 professor titled "Changjiang" scholar and 1 professor titled "Taihu Scholar", 16 professors and 50 associate professors. In addition there are 23 emeritus, visiting and part-time professors. In history the academic stuffs in the school finished a lot of national significant projects, received many awards and published many academic and text books. In recent years, tens of research projects received awards of Ministerial and Provincial level, more than 10 patents were applied, lots of academic books and authorized text books were published and more than 160 papers were published per year in which more than 50 papers were cited by SCI, EI and ISTP induces. Currently tens of projects are going on of which 10 projects were funded by National Natural Science Foundation. The school has established extensive academic cooperation and exchange relationship with universities in many other countries and areas such as USA, France, German, UK, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia and Hong Kong, and is gradually well-known by the world.

The school currently is composed of Department of Chemical Engineering, Department of Polymer Material and Department of Applied Chemistry, administrating correspondingly the undergraduate speciality of Chemical Engineering & Technology, Polymer Material & Engineering and Applied Chemistry, in which the former two the specialities are characteristic speciality of Jiangsu Province. The school has been authorized to award MS degree in sub-subjects of Chemical Engineering, Chemical Technology, Industrial Catalysis, Biochemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry, Material Science & Engineering, Analytical Chemistry and Leather Chemistry & Engineering, and has been authorized to award PhD in Applied Chemistry, Leather Chemistry & Engineering and any one of the sub-subject under the primary subject of Light Chemical Engineering & Technology. Currently there are more than 1100 full-time undergraduate student and approximately 400 post-graduate students studying in the school. In recent years many students have received awards in national student competitions such as challenge cup, innovation cup, math model establishment and English competitions, and the successful rate of primary job-hunting of the graduates is nearly 100%.

This year the school is moved to new campus (Lihu campus) where the school possesses a new building of 20,000 M2, composed of the best classrooms and laboratories of the country, which provide physical conditions for bringing up qualified graduates and enhancing their ability. The Chemistry Laboratory of the school has been a key lab of the Ministerial level, and is an outstanding one compared with similar lab in the country. Recently a central laboratory of chemistry and chemical engineering has been established which provide basic and comprehensive laboratory practice in chemistry and chemical engineering to all undergraduate students concerned in this university, and has been assessed as a university demonstrative laboratory teaching centre by Jingsu Province. Besides the school also possesses surfactant technology lab, essence and fragrant material lab, cosmetics and hairdressing lab, fine organic synthesis lab, polymer moulding lab, coating material lab and computer-auxiliary designing studio. The school possesses another building established recently as one of the sub-project of the "211 project" of the Southern Yangtze University, an industrial scale up base of fine chemical engineering, in which commercial scale of tests can be executed and students can receive a good industrial engineering training and practice.

The school has paid special attention to establish and enhance relationship and communication with industry, and is the member of many important association or society, such as vice-director of China Essence and Fragrant Material Society, standing member of China Association of Detergent Industry, vice-chairman of China Surfactant Committee, standing member of China Association of Oral Hygiene Product Industry, and vice-director of China Association of Fine Chemical Industry Surfactant Committee. A sub-board of trustees has been established in the school. The directors include China Association of Detergent Industry, China Essence & Fragrant Material Society, and more than 20 international and national companies such as P & G (China), Na-ai-si of Zhejiang, Nan-feng of Shanxi, ISP (Hong kang), White-cat of Shanghai, Soap-Manufacture of Shanghai, Li-bai of Guangzhou and Zhong-ya of Wuxi. The school has paid special attention to the cooperation and combination of production, learning and researching, and several institutes or research centers have been established cooperated with Nan-feng of Shanxi, Long-li-qi of Jinagsu, Na-ai-si of Zhejiang and Shun-long of Guangdong. Many famous international and national companies, such as Novo Nordisk (China), Tian-ci of Guangdong, ISP (Hong kang) and so on, fund various studentships and rewards to excellent teachers in the school amounting to more than 200,000 RMB per year to encourage both students and teachers doing their best to devote to developments of the light chemical engineering industry in China.