Am I a chemist or a chemical engineer?

Question

I apologise if this is the wrong place to ask. I tried asking on reddit but so far I didn't get a lot of answers/

It seems that in America these two degrees are considered separate. Not so much here in Russia. By American standards would I be classified as a chemist or a chemical engineer? I apologise for the boring list but I have no idea how else to present the information.

In my bachelor's course, which was called when translated literally "chemical technology I had:

-4 semesters of maths (covering integrals, limits, multiple variable derivatives, series, combinatorics, statistics, linear algebra and differential equations; not my forte),

-2 semesters of inorganic chemistry,

-2 semesters of organic chemistry,

-2 semesters of physical chemistry,

-3 semesters of physics,

-2 semesters of technical drawing,

-1 semester of material science,

-1 semester of polymer chemistry

-2 semesters of analytical chemistry

-1 semesters of colloidal chemistry.

-2 semesters of mechanics (the latter one being a giant technical drawing of a reactor with calculations with calculations for size),

-1 semester crash course of electrical engineering

-1 semester of computer modelling of chemical processes (definitely not my forte, we worked in matlab)

-3 of "chemical machines and process" (hydrodynamics, thermal and material exchange, pumps, filters, rectification columns etc. ) with the third semester being a giant project designing a rectification column to produce x amount of some chemical pre day with all the calculations; not my forte)

I specialise in coatings and corrosion protection so I also had

-1 semester of electrochemistry.

-1 semester of corrosion

-1 semester on the electrodeposition of various electrochemical coatings.

-1 semester of corrosion monitoring.

I had other stuff like computational mathematics (matlab), programming (basic), ecology, quantum chemistry, industrial safety, crystallography, and maybe something I don't remember 1 semester each, but these weren't taken seriously.

In my masters I had ( 1 semester each):

-Innovative materials,

-More material science

-Nanocorrosion (I have no idea what that is because our instructor was unbearable to listen too)

-Paints and varnishes (both their chemistry and how they are produces industrially)

-Non-metal corrosion.

-ChemCAD

-Coating testing methods (surface roughness, gloss etc. )

-Wastewater treatment (heavy focus on electroplating plant wastewater; at the end we had a project where we had to design a facility that would treat water of a certain composition)

-Electrochemical production line project (we were given a task, say, copper planting carbon steel chairs and we had to design the whole workshop: choose the right sequence of chemical processes, the right electrolytes, design a water treatment and air ventilation system that would satisfy the safety requirements, calculate the amount of chemicals and power the line would consume etc. )

-AND A LOT OF LAB RESEARCH. I wrote my graduation thesis on superhydrophobic coatings.

So what am I: a chemist or a chemical engineer?

I totally forgot. We also had 1 semester of "chemical technology" where we studied chemical reactors an 1 semester of "control systems in chemical technology"

Answer 1

You do not seem to have the following courses that are core to undergraduate chemical engineering in the US:

• foundations in mass and energy balances
• foundations in heat and mass transfer
• process analysis of systems for heat and mass transfer
• heterogeneous catalysis
• chemical engineering thermodynamics
• fluid flow
• a focused course on reactor design
• experience in a multi-systems unit operations laboratory
• unit operations system design

This is equivalent to being about one year perhaps more below having an undergraduate chemical engineering degree. By example, I estimate, should you want to obtain a BS in a US ChemEng program, you should likely have to make up at least seven core ChemEng courses starting from a junior level up through senior level.

• Stoichiometry
• Chem Eng Thermo
• Fluid Transport
• Catalysis and Reactor Design
• Principles of Heat and Mass Transport Processes
• Practices in Transport/Separation Processes
• Chemical Engineering Plant Design
• (Process Safety)

Should you want to continue to a PhD in ChemEng, you may be able to bypass some of these course to study on your own, but I imagine also that you might still be required to take some of them before official admission to the PhD.

For chemistry, you list general chemistry as inorganic chemistry, meaning that you would have to make up with advanced inorganic chemistry. You do not list anything for instrumental analysis or anything about the laboratory coverage in each chemistry course. Laboratories are core for most undergraduate chemistry curricula in the US.

Should you want to continue to a PhD in Chemistry, I expect you would have no required make up courses at all.

In summary, all said, based on a US perspective, you are closer to being a physical / analytical / surface / materials chemist with a minor in chemical process systems (e.g. "technical chemistry") than you are to being a chemical engineer. You would have an easier path to attempt a PhD in chemistry or materials science than you ever would have to attempt a PhD in chemical engineering.

Your background will be most appreciated in the interdisciplinary field of surface science & technology.