Chemistry

The Department of Chemistry offers research specializations in biochemistry, inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry, and theoretical chemistry. In all of these areas, the department offers programs leading to a Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry. The program seeks to achieve both breadth of knowledge in the chemical subdisciplines and specialized competence through formal courses, seminars, examinations, and research. Students may opt for a master’s degree en route to the PhD if they satisfy the appropriate requirements.

Research opportunities within the Department of Chemistry span traditional and interdisciplinary areas of molecular science. Specific areas include total synthesis, reaction methodology, translational medicinal chemistry, organic and inorganic catalysis, photonics, materials chemistry, nanoscience and nanotechnology, spectroscopy, electrochemistry, mechanistic enzymology, structural and chemical biology, and theoretical and computational chemistry and biophysics.

The departmental office, teaching laboratories, and research groups are housed in the Metcalf Science Center (590 Commonwealth Avenue). Additional research laboratories are located in the Life Sciences & Engineering Building (24 Cummington Mall) and the Photonics Center (8 St. Mary’s St.), allowing for collaborative interactions at the interface of chemistry, biology, biomedical and electrical engineering, and materials science. The Metcalf Science Center also houses the Chemical Instrumentation Center (CIC), which is the home for cutting-edge core-instrumentation essential to the molecular sciences. A complete listing of the CIC resources, including the departmental NMR, Mass Spectrometry, X-ray Diffraction, EPR and CD resources, can be found at the CIC homepage. Additional shared instrumentation resources (AFM, SEM, TEM, clean room, etc.) are located at the Photonics Center, and computational resources are available through the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC).