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A fluid deforming and flowing as forces are imposed on it; its temperature varying as heat is transferred through it, the inter-diffusion of its distinct molecular species - these are examples of the processes of transport. These transport processes govern the rates at which velocity, temperature, and composition vary in a fluid; chemical engineers study transport to be able to describe, predict, and manage this change. The research includes experimental testing and analytical and computational modeling; the applications range among an enormous variety of mechanical, chemical, and biological processes.

In the Department, you will find expertise in polymer flow and processing, diffusion in complex fluids, defect formation and evolution in near-crystalline materials, microfluidics, fluid instability, transport in living tissue, numerical solution of field equations, and many other areas of transport phenomena. View the pages of individual faculty members to learn about recent and ongoing research.

Robert C. Armstrong Professor 617.253.4581
rca@mit.edu		 polymer molecular theory, polymer fluid mechanics, rheology, multiscale process modeling, transport phenomena, applied mathematics
Daniel Blankschtein Professor 617.253.4594
dblank@mit.edu		 colloid and interface science, thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, environmental and biomedical aspects of structured fluids, bioseparations, transdermal drug delivery
Howard Brenner Emeritus Professor 617.253.6687
hbrenner@mit.edu		 microfluidics, low Reynolds number hydrodynamics, complex fluids, interfacial transport, multiphase transport in porous media, generalized Taylor dispersion phenomena and macro transport processes, chromatography theory, aerosol and hydrosol deposition, physico-chemical hydrodynamics, statistical mechanics, laminar chaotic transport, thermodynamics of polarized systems
William M. Deen Professor 617.253.4535
wmdeen@mit.edu		 bioengineering, transport phenomena, membrane separations
Patrick S. Doyle Associate Professor 617.253.4534
pdoyle@mit.edu		 biophysics, microfluidics separations, microrheology, polymer physics, transport phenomena
T. Alan Hatton Professor 617.253.4588
tahatton@mit.edu		 transport phenomena, separation processes, microemulsions, colloids
Kenneth A. Smith Professor 617.253.1973
kas@mit.edu		 fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer