The department trains undergraduate students and conducts original research at the interfaces between engineering, chemistry, biology and physics.

Its research programmes encompass sustainable reaction engineering, chemical product and process design, healthcare, measurement, and materials science.

It conducts biotechnology research with chemical engineering at the science-engineering interface.

Former staff include: In 1945, the university received an endowment from Shell for a chemical engineering department and chair.

In 2017, the department moved over to a new building on Philippa Fawcett Drive on the West Cambridge site.