Summer Minor in Responsible Process Implementation

Students around table

About the Program

Launching Summer 2022, the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in the College of Chemistry is offering students an exciting opportunity to gain more preparation for successful professional careers in industry. The emphasis of the five-course, 15-unit program provided over two six-week summer sessions is to introduce students to the following fundamental concepts.

  • How a technology professional can effectively and ethically perform in a business environment.
  • How to utilize various quantitative process improvement techniques.
  • The role that Green Chemistry plays in industry.
  • The environmental impacts of chemical processes on workers, consumers and society.


Group of students studying

Student on laptop. Photo by #WOCintech Chat.

Interactive Experience

The program includes team-based projects to enable students to learn how to solve real-life industrial process engineering problems using cases from industry partners. The emphasis of the program is to integrate fundamental business and technology concepts to enhance each student's effectiveness in their subsequent professional careers.

Students who have successfully completed the program will be able to:

  1. Demonstrate the ability to work in a team environment
  2. Communicate effectively with peers and colleagues from different disciplines
  3. Perform economic analyses in support of project proposals
  4. Understand ethical and socially responsible approaches when making business and professional decisions
  5. Apply basic quantitative and analytical techniques to aid process improvement
  6. Apply Green Chemistry principles in making technical decisions
  7. Develop basic environmental, health and safety plans that are applicable to the chemical industry environment
  8. Assess and manage impacts from chemical processes to the worker and the environment
  9. Demonstrate the ability to solve real-life process engineering problems

Green flasks

Required Courses

SUMMER SESSION A

Chemical Business Fundamentals (4 Units)
Prerequisite for Chemical Business Fundamentals II and New Process Implementation

Greener Solutions: A Safer Design Partnership (3 Units)

SUMMER SESSION D

Chemical Business Fundamentals II (4 units)

New Process Implementation: Concept to Commercialization (3 Units)

Ethics and Social Responsibility (1 unit)

Required courses will be provided during the summer only. Courses may be completed in one summer or over multiple summers. To be successful in this program, students are encouraged to have completed lower division chemistry, mathematics and other related general science courses or their equivalents.

UC Berkeley students in the Colleges of Chemistry, Environmental Design, Letters and Science, and Natural Resources are eligible to receive the minor. Students must complete all courses for a letter grade to fulfill the minor. Students must achieve at least a 2.0 GPA in all five courses. For the minor to be awarded, the student must submit a notification of completion of the minor to the College of Chemistry Undergraduate Student Services Office.

UC Berkeley students are eligible for a $1,500 scholarship if they complete the summer minor in one or two consecutive summers.

Non-UC Berkeley students may take all courses P/NP to earn a certificate of completion from the College of Chemistry. For the certificate to be awarded, the student must submit a notification of completion to the College of Chemistry GOLD Programs [email: goldprograms@berkeley.edu ] that includes the student's ID number, the courses taken, dates, and grade.

For more information about enrolling, please visit Berkeley Summer Sessions Summer Minors and Certificates.