PhD Minor

Chemistry is about the nature of matter, how to make it, measure it, and model it. In that sense, chemistry matters; it is essential to explaining the real world. It holds the key to making new drugs, creating new materials, and understanding and controlling material properties of all sorts. It is no wonder that chemistry is called the “Central Science.” Traditionally, it is divided into subdisciplines, such as organic, inorganic, physical, biological, theoretical, and analytical. Still, these distinctions blur as it is increasingly appreciated how all science, let alone chemistry, is interconnected. 

A deeper understanding of chemistry enables students to participate in research and studies involving biotechnology, nanotechnology, catalysis, human health, materials, earth and environmental sciences, and more. Together, faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate and undergraduate students actively work side by side to develop new probes of biological molecules, model protein folding and reactivity, manipulate carbon nanotubes, develop new oxidation and polymerization catalysts, and synthesize organic molecules to probe ion channels. The overarching theme of these pursuits is a focus at the atomic and molecular levels, whether this concerns probing the electronic structure and reactivity of molecules as small as dihydrogen or synthesizing large polymer assemblies. The ability to synthesize new molecules and materials and to modify existing biological structures allows the properties of complex systems to be analyzed and harnessed with massive benefit to both the scientific community and society at large.