Mission and Tenets

Mission Statement

PME advances the mission of translating advances in basic physics, chemistry, biology, and computation into new tools to address important societal problems and to create a research and teaching environment that enhances and transmits these capabilities to future generations.

Tenets of the School

1. The school will supersede and replace the Institute for Molecular Engineering in the Statutes of the University, taking its place alongside the other schools and divisions.
2. The school will continue to encourage behaviors that establish and develop a culture of collaboration directed at translational research in the field of molecular engineering.
3. The school will continue to represent a thematically important part of the University’s overall research program at the interface of the biological, physical, computational, and medical sciences and their applications.
4. The school, supported by extant strengths in the basic molecular, computational, and clinical sciences, will continue to position the University as an intellectual leader in the field of molecular engineering, bringing to bear its tradition of intellectual rigor and cross-disciplinary scholarship on questions of scientific importance and societal urgency.
5. The school will focus on research, education, and societal impacts relating to molecular engineering, comprising the discovery of basic principles governing the behavior of natural or synthetic molecular systems; the application of such knowledge in the design of advanced devices and technologies; and future lines of inquiry developing therefrom. The school will be the primary and permanent place for research and education relating to molecular engineering at the University.
6. The school will offer graduate and undergraduate degrees in molecular engineering to students in its graduate programs and in The College.
7. The school will be a free-standing academic unit at the University with the authority to appoint faculty (following University Statutes, policies and procedures). The dean of the school (the “dean”) will continue to be tasked with developing and executing a research and educational vision that integrates and amplifies complementary ongoing research and teaching at the University. The dean will maintain a faculty of tenured and tenure-track faculty members and will continue to expand its faculty ranks as appropriate and practicable to reach a size commensurate with its mission.
8. The school will continue to embrace interdisciplinary research, as reflected in a faculty structure organized, rather than around discipline-based units, around themes, problems, or other organizing principles designed by its dean and faculty to enable addressing and solving complex problems.
9. The school will continue to grow and diversify the research areas pursued by its faculty to realize more fully the original objectives of establishing molecular engineering at the University in a manner consistent with the other tenets set forth in this document.
10. The school will actively engage, domestically and internationally, other areas of the University, its affiliates, and industry partners, and, following University Statutes, policies and procedures, will encourage joint faculty appointments with its affiliates and partners when appropriate.
11. Where appropriate, the school will invite collaborations with researchers in a broad array of disciplines, and by promoting interactions across these disciplines, will capitalize on the strengths of the University in these areas, creating a synergistic cross-disciplinary incubator for ideas that will maximize the application of molecular technologies in addressing key societal and global problems.

This mission and these tenets are part of reinforcing the school’s standing as the successor academic unit to the IME, and as a unique and enduring contributor to the University’s culture, intellectual climate, and international reputation.