The Discipline of Chemical Engineering in Harbin Institute of Technology was founded in the 1930s, which is one of the colleges with earlier establishment of this discipline. After the founding of the state, the School of Chemical Engineering was founded in 2008 based on the adjustment of the school and department for several times. In 2016, the School of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry was founded by integrating the Chemical Engineering with the discipline of Technology, the discipline of Food Science and Technology, and the discipline of Chemistry.

There are 168 teachers in the school, including 69 professors, 57 associate professors, and 75 doctoral supervisors, and 85% of the teachers have overseas study and work experiences. Besides, there are two double-hired academicians, three Cheung Kong Scholars Distinguished Professors and two Cheung Kong Scholars Chair Professors, one National Outstanding Young Scholar, one member of the National Talents Project, one Innovative Leading Talent of the Ministry of Science and Technology, one winner of the Science and Technology Award for Chinese Youth, three members of National Young Overseas High-level Talents Introduction Plan, three National Top-notch Young Scholars, 12 New Century Excellent Talents of the Ministry of Education, and two provincial outstanding teachers.

There is one first class discipline Doctoral Degree Program on Chemical Engineering and Technology, and two first class discipline Master Degree Programs on Chemistry and Food Science and Engineering in the school. The discipline of Chemical Engineering and Technology is the key first class discipline of both Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Heilongjiang Province, with a postdoctoral research station built. At present, the first class discipline of Chemical Engineering and Technology ranks eighth in the country, and 151-200 in the QS World Discipline of Chemical Engineering. The discipline of Chemistry comes in the top 1% of ESI in the world.

Closely focusing on the international academic frontier and national major strategic needs, the school adheres to basing aerospace, serving national defense and facing the main battlefield of national economy, and distinctive features and advantages are developed in such aspects as high molecular materials, chemical power sources, energy and chemical industry, materials chemistry, photoelectrocatalysis, food engineering and space nutrition, which have reached an international leading or advanced level. The school has undertaken the scientific research projects from the National Science and Technology Major Project, the National Program on Key Basic Research Project (973 Program), the National High-tech R&D Program of China (863 Program), the National Support Program, the International Cooperation Projects of Ministry of Science and Technology, the General and Key Programs of National Natural Science Foundation of China, the major and key projects of national defense and aerospace and other projects. Over the years, the school has received 11 National Awards for Technological Invention, three National Prizes for Progress in Science and Technology, and more than 150 provincial and ministerial science and technology awards, and it has achieved more than 800 patents for invention granted by the state. Moreover, in the past five years, the school has won three second-class National Awards for Technological Invention, two second-class National Prizes for Progress in Science and Technology and 11 provincial and ministerial first prizes, and over 1000 SCI papers have been published, including more than 80 highly-cited ESI papers. With great importance to the transformation of achievements in scientific researches, the school establishes the industry-university-research cooperation platforms such as HIT- Wuxi Research Institute of New Materials, and many achievements have been applied in engineering and industrialized, creating significant economic and social benefits.

A national key laboratory has been jointly built in the school, and there is a key laboratory of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, a key laboratory of Heilongjiang Province, four provincial and ministerial engineering technology centers and laboratories, an innovative team for national defense, a National-level Teaching Group, a National Experimental Teaching Demonstrating Center, and an Experimental Teaching Demonstrating Center.

Being very active in international academic exchange and cooperation, the school has established overseas academic bases and joint laboratories with the famous universities and research institutes in such countries as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Denmark, Russia, and Japan, and launched substantive cooperative research projects and the programs of joint training and exchange of students. It has been common that students go abroad to carry out exchange activities such as short-term academic researches and academic conferences.

The school recruits undergraduates in accordance with two large classes including Energy and Chemical engineering and Chemistry. The former includes four undergraduate majors of Chemical Engineering and Technology (comprising three professional emphases on Electrochemical Engineering, Material Chemical Engineering and Biochemical Engineering), High Molecular Materials and Engineering, Energy Chemical Engineering and Food Science and Engineering, while the latter includes three undergraduate majors of Chemistry, Applied Chemistry and Materials Chemistry. Currently, there are 1,518 enrolled students in the school, including 626 undergraduates, 422 master’s degree candidates, 447 doctoral degree candidates and 23 foreign students. The school pays much attention to the overall development of students and puts forth effort into training innovation-type talents in chemical engineering and chemistry that possess persistent faith, good morality, knowledgeability, excellent skills and international vision. The graduates play important roles in the Fortune Global 500 enterprises such as CNPC, Sinopec, CASIC, CASC, COFCO, Dow Chemical Company, P&G, Volkswagen, Nestle, and Danone, and the departments such as famous universities, scientific research institutes, and government offices, with general consent and wide acclaim from employers.