The Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering originates from the Basic Science Division established in 1952. Currently there are 22 professors, 21 associate professors and 18 lecturers, which include two Changjiang scholars and three outstanding young scholars of the national fund. Faculty research laboratories and shared-instrumentation facilities are housed in the Lihua Building and Huasheng Building. The instruments are more than 40 million Yuan. The Beijing key laboratory for science and application of functional molecular and crystalline materials is also housed in Lihua Building. According to the Thomson Reuters ESI (Essential Science Indicator) evaluation, the chemistry discipline has been ranked in the world’s top 1% since 2012. 

The Department provides the opportunity for undergraduate students to obtain a thorough fundamental knowledge of all fields of chemistry. There are lecture courses as well as laboratory courses in the areas of inorganic, analytical, organic, physical chemistry and polymer science. About 60 bachelor's degrees in applied chemistry are awarded each year. 

The Ph. D. program as well as the master degree program in the Department offer broad opportunities and flexibility for advanced studies in inorganic chemistry, analytical chemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry, solid chemistry, polymer science and theoretical chemistry. Research is designed to encourage independence, innovation and excellence. 

The mission of the Department is to foster an inclusive and creative intellectual environment for people to discover and apply fundamental laws of nature in pure and applied chemistry.