HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENT

Chemical Engineering is one of the relatively younger departments of Istanbul Technical University, which is the oldest engineering school, of 229 years of age, in the country. The Chemical Engineering education in Istanbul Technical University was initiated in the Maçka Technical School in 1958 as a four-years program issuing undergraduate degrees, and the first class of chemical engineers graduated in 1962. The Faculty of Chemistry was founded in 1963 and between the years of 1963-1969, a five-years program issuing graduate degrees (equivalent to an M.S. degree) in Chemical Engineering was pursued. A transition to separate undergraduate and graduate programs of four and two years, respectively, was realized in 1969. The Faculty of Chemistry was organized as six divisions (Analytical Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Industrial Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Fundamentals) in those years. In 1982, the latter two divisions (Industrial Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Fundamentals) offering about 60% of the undergraduate courses at the time, were restructured to form the Department of Chemical Engineering in the Faculty of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering. The Department of Chemical Engineering was structured in the form of four divisions (Unit Operations, Process and Reactor Design, Chemical Technologies, Thermodynamics and Energy Technologies) between the years of 1982 and 2003. In 2003, the divisions were abolished from the organization and management system, and a cooperative system for collective planning was implemented in the department.