Over the past fifty years, the growth of polymer science and engineering has been extremely fast. New application has been found daily. With their ease of process and high performance, polymers have become the material of choice of modern life from food packaging, clothing, housing, transportation, communication to electronic and aerospace equipment, etc. Polymers are man-made materials that can be designed, synthesized and processed into various shapes for applications. The field of polymer is interdisciplinary in nature. Thus, within the National Taiwan University, many departments including chemical engineering, materials science and engineering, chemistry, mechanical engineering, applied mechanics, engineering science and ocean engineering, dental science, and condensed matter science center have been carried out extensive teaching and research programs for more than thirty years.

To found a graduate institute that is devoted in polymer science and engineering has been proposed since 1994. Finally, with long term efforts from the College of Engineering and the Department of Chemical Engineering, an approval was obtained from the Education of Ministry to set-up an Institute of Polymer Science and Engineering in 2001 for training Ph.D. and M.S. The Institute currently enrolls 69 M.S. students and 60 Ph.D. students. At present, we have 4 full-time faculties, 20 adjunct faculty, and 1 part-time faculties. The institute will continue to search and hire distinguished experts in the field of polymer science and engineering.

The institute strives to maintain a state-of-the-art research environment and perform cutting-edge research programs sponsored by the government and industry.

The research directions and emphases will be in the flowing areas:
1. New methodology on polymer synthesis and their applications on architecture control
2. Characterization of polymer morphology and simulation
3. Polymer/Inorganic hybrid material research for electronic And optoelectronic application
4. New biopolymers research for biomedical application.

We will organize polymer materials related conferences and will offer seminars and training courses for academic, industry, government and general public on a needed basis to expand our education base. The immediately available topics but not limited to them are listed in the following:
1.  Precise Polymer Synthesis and its applications
2. Control of polymer microstructure and its applications.
3. Design, synthesis, and applications of nanostructured polymers
4. Molecular simulation and polymer interface
5. Design, synthesis and application of advanced polymer optical, electronic, optoelectronic materials.
6. Design, synthesis and application of polymer-inorganic hybrid materials.
7. Design, synthesis and performance analysis of biomaterials.