This special edition of "Advances in Chemical Engineering", commemorating chemical engineering's centennial as an academic discipline, provides an in-depth analysis of this field's past, present, and future by authorities from virtually all areas of chemical engineering. A historical perspective of the past 100 years leads into reviews of fluid mechanics and transport phenomena; thermodynamics; kinetics, cataylsis, and reactor engineering; environmental protection and energy; polymers; microelectronics and optical materials; bioengineering; and process engineering.