Our History

Discover the department's rich history and explore our significant accomplishments and milestones spanning the past century.

We trace our history back to 1923 when the Ramsay Memorial Department of Chemical Engineering was established as a tribute from friends, colleagues, and students to the great work achieved by Sir William Ramsay during his tenure of the Chair of General and Inorganic Chemistry at UCL from 1887 to 1913.

The objective then was to enable young graduates in chemistry and engineering, who had already obtained good training in the fundamental sciences, to direct their studies towards the application of these sciences to the design and operation of chemical engineering units and processes.

Whilst the initial focus of the department was to provide postgraduate level education and conduct research particularly related to scale-up and design of chemical processes, we now provide a broad educational programme based on an extensive research portfolio across a wealth of areas, from the molecular level to the scale of large processing plants, developing innovative and impactful technological solutions that leverage advances in basic sciences addressing global grand challenges in domains such as advanced manufacturing, functional materials, health, energy, environment and sustainability.

From a humble beginning of three students and two members of staff in 1923, in 2022-23 we counted over 800 students and over 150 staff members of which 47 academics. Our students, of which now nearly 40% are female, come from all corners of the world and the department’s alumni reach is therefore extensive, spanning many different industries, organisations and academic departments and counting several CEOs and Heads of Departments.