chemical engineers, and some other measures including patent productivity and awards.

The United States is presently, and is expected to remain, among the world’s leaders in all subareas of chemical engineering research, with clear leadership in several subareas. U.S. leadership in some classical and emerging subareas will be strongly challenged.

The United States is currently among world leaders in all of the subareas of chemical engineering research identified in the report, and leads in both classical subareas such as transport processes as well as emerging areas such as cellular and metabolic engineering. Although the comparative percentage of U.S. publications has decreased substantially (see Figure 1), the quality and impact still remain very high and clearly in a leading position. For example, 73 of the 100 most-cited papers in chemical engineering literature during the period 2000-2006 came from the United States (see Figure 2). As a result, the United States is expected to maintain its current position at the “Forefront” or “Among World Leaders” in all subareas of

FIGURE 1 Number of published papers in chemical engineering from various geographic regions.

NOTE: Asia comprises China, Korea, Taiwan, and India, and the European Union includes 25 countries.