Introduction
The Department of Bioprocess Engineering is one of the five departments that make up the Faculty of Chemical and Natural Resources Engineering. It was established in 1990 at Jalan Semarak campus in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. The department offers undergraduate program leading to B.Eng. in Chemical-Bioprocess Engineering and postgraduate programs such as M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Bioprocess Engineering by research. Presently there are 19 academic staffs, over 150 undergraduates, 4 laboratory technicians, 4 Ph.D students and 22 master students working on different aspects of bioprocess engineering. The motivation behind the establishment of this department due to the growing importance of biotechnology. As contrast to other biological science disciplines, the curriculum of bioprocess engineering was especially designed to include chemical engineering subjects as the 'core', and biological-associated subjects as 'specialization' areas. Therefore, potential students that enter the job market will not only be well equipped with biological-based knowledge, but also and recognized as qualified chemical engineers. Our random survey have indicated that our graduates had joined in a variety of industries that include pharmaceutical, food processing, environmental management, oleo-chemical, services and many more.

Since the inception in 1990, the department's main core of business had been focused particularly on the recruitment of undergraduates. The undergraduate enrollment had increased from circa 25 in 1991, to circa 60 in 1999. In parallel to the student increase, the intake of new staff was intensified from initially five in 1990, to nineteen at present. In 1992, the very first student enrolled in the M.Sc. of Bioprocess Engineering program. From mid-90s up to date, the enrollment of the post-graduates, particularly into Masters program, have been surging dramatically. It is believed that the reputation of biotechnology that have been widely promoted in the country, as well as the establishment of government-backed flagship project of the Malaysian "Bio Valley", has profoundly encouraged many students to pursue their study at graduate level in bioprocess engineering. Surprisingly, the current trend also shows that students from non-biological backgrounds (e.g. gas, polymer and chemical engineering) are also very much inclined to join into biotechnology studies in our department.


The Bioprocess Engineering Department could be contacted at correspondence address :

Head
Department of Bioprocess Engineering
Faculty of Chemical and Natural Resources Engineering
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
81310 UTM Skudai
Johor Darul Ta'zim
Malaysia.

Tel: 60-7-5535513
Fax: 60-7-5581463

E-mail : firdaus@fkkksa.utm.my 



Last Updated: 4 January 2006