The Department was founded in 1972 as the Department of Industrial Chemistry. In 1978, the Polymer Research Institute was established. In 1980, the Department was renamed the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Polymer Research Institute was merged into the Department in 1984. The current 8-story chemical engineering building, with a floor space of 12500 m2 and equipped with the most advanced teaching and research facilities in Taiwan, was completed in the summer of 1993.