Chemistry is and always has been an integral part of engineering and science. Chemistry is useful to all kinds of engineers. In other words it is not just the ‘chemical’ engineers who need to use chemistry in their field.

Also you don’t have much of a choice do you? Most colleges teach chemistry as part of their curriculum, regardless of whether you like it or not. The same can be said for schools. Also if you’re aspiring to do research especially in physics you don’t have much of a choice as the fields where research opportunities are maximum, are all related to chemistry. To be specific, these fields are mostly to do with the study of sub atomic particles, something which involves quite a large percentage of chemistry.

Studies to do with biology, also involve quite an impressive amount of chemistry. Bio-chemical reactions, synthesis of large biomolecules (also called macromolecules) like carbohydrates, proteins ,lipids, sugars etc, all involve chemistry to a considerable extent. Studies in biology cannot be carried out without knowledge of chemistry. So any research that you’d want to do in biology or any medical profession that you’d like to go into, knowledge of chemistry is a must.

Physics as we’ve already seen involves quite a lot of chemistry. To come to engineering, mechanical engineers for example need to have basic working knowledge of properties of different metals, oils etc, civil engineers must know how much stress can a material hold, packing of atoms in different materials etc.

In advanced areas like space research too, chemistry is involved. The search for better minerals from say, outer space is an everlasting process.

In lots of other professions, knowledge of chemistry is often a prerequisite. Who know, if nothing interests you, you might end up becoming a chemistry teacher.

Some books on engineering chemistry:

1. Engineering Chemistry
   by A. Pahari and B. Chauhan
2. Chemistry for Engineering Students
   by Larry Brown and Tom Holme
3. Chemistry for Environmental Engineering and Science
   by Clair Nathan Sawyer, Perry L. McCarty, and Gene F. Parkin
4. Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: With Applications To Physics, Biology, Chemistry, And Engineering (Studies in nonlinearity)
   by Steven H. Strogatz
5. Introduction to Environmental Engineering and Science
   by Gilbert M. Masters and Wendell P. Ela
6. Manufacturing Processes for Engineering Materials (5th Edition)
   by Serope Kalpakjian and Steven Schmid
7. Chemical, Biochemical, and Engineering Thermodynamics
   by Stanley I. Sandler
8. Modern Electrochemistry 2B: Electrodics in Chemistry, Engineering, Biology and Environmental Science
   by John O’M. Bockris and Amulya K.N. Reddy
9. Architecture and Principles of Systems Engineering (CRC Complex and Enterprise Systems Engineering)
   by Charles Dickerson and Dimitri N. Mavris
10. Numerical Methods for Chemical Engineering: Applications in MATLAB by Kenneth J. Beers