History of the Department

Chemical Engineering Department of ITU can be considered as a new department when the long history of ITU which comes from 1773 is thought. Chemical Engineering education at Istanbul Technical University began in 1958 at the ITU Technical School of Chemistry in the form of a 4-year degree program and Department gave its first graduates in 1962 titled as chemical engineer. Prof. Dr. Nami Serdaroğlu first established this branch, however the amendment made in 1973, and it became the Department of Chemistry of ITU Faculty of Engineering and Architecture (ITU MMF). In 1963 by the Law No. 333, ITU Faculty of the Department of Chemistry was founded as the sixth Faculty of ITU. Department was organized to be six podiums regarding Chemistry; Analytical Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Industrial Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Principles. In the years between 1963-1969, a 5-year master's degree equivalent program was implemented in Chemical Engineering. This system was replaced in 1969, and the binary system consisting of a 4-year undergraduate and 2-year graduate degree programs was introduced. Faculty of Chemistry served as the faculty at night between 1973-1980. This 5 year night term education gave its graduates the diploma of engineer. In 1982, the Industrial Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Principles podiums belonged to Chemistry Faculty and the department of Chemical Engineering at the MMF of ITU were brought together and the Department of Chemical Engineering was formed under the newly formed Faculty of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering. The other 4 podiums of Chemistry Faculty formed the Chemistry Department at the Arts and Sciences Faculty. The Department of Chemical Engineering was firstly structured as three main science branches naming Unit Operations, Process and Reactor Design and Chemical Technologies In 1990, a new main science branch of Thermodynamics and Energy Technology was appended to the current structure. In 2003, all main science branches were removed and gathered as one under the name of Chemical Engineering Department.