Molecular Engineering & Sciences – UW Graduate School Skip to content

Molecular Engineering & Sciences

The Molecular Engineering Ph.D. program takes a rational approach to engineering highly-complex, multifunctional molecular systems.  It draws on fundamental principles shared across various fields of engineering and sciences that develop materials with organic, biological or inorganic/organic hybrid molecular architecture. The program provides breadth of training in the fundamental molecular description of matter (including synthesis, modeling and characterization) and depth of training in specialization towards molecular systems. Students are trained to become experimentalists or theoreticians who can design and characterize molecules and systems of molecules, model molecular system behaviors and inspire new molecular designs, and recognize and exploit molecular and nanoscale system constraints that impact system functionalities.

Program Website

Degree(s)/Certificate(s) offered

  • Doctor of Philosophy (molecular engineering)
  • Master of Science (molecular engineering)*

*students are admitted to the PhD program only

Program director/interdisciplinary group chair

  • Alshakim Nelson, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry

Interdisciplinary Faculty Group Membership

The following are the core/voting Graduate Faculty members of the interdisciplinary group. For a complete list of faculty active in the program, see the program website.

  • Jae-Hyun Chung, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
  • Jens Gundlach, Professor, Department of Physics
  • Vincent Holmberg, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering
  • Alshakim Nelson, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry
  • Peter Pauzauskie, Associate Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
  • Jessica Ray, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
  • Eleftheria Roumeli, Assistant Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
  • Georg Seelig, Assistant Professor, Departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science & Engineering
  • Ying Zheng, Associate Professor, Department of Bioengineering