Washington University’s Department of Chemistry offers an environment where students can grow and develop. It is a medium-sized program that wants for nothing in terms of resources while providing personalized attention of a smaller program.
For information regarding the Graduate Program in Chemistry, please contact the Director of Graduate Studies, Prof. Rich Loomis (314-935-8534 and loomis@wustl.edu)
Washington University in St. Louis is acknowledged as one of the world’s leading research institutions. The tradition of excellence began in Chemistry following World War II when six scientists (J. Kennedy, L. Helmholtz, D. Lipkin, H. Potratz, A. Wahl, and S. Weissman) from the Manhattan Project joined the department.
That tradition is very much alive today. The department has strong programs in chemical instrumentation particularly in magnetic resonance (solid and solution NMR, NMR imaging, and EPR) and laser spectroscopy. We are host of the NIH Research Resource in Mass Spectrometry, one of 70 national centers supported by NIH for biotechnology development in all areas of instrumentation and methods. Another vigorous program is focused on photosynthesis, supported by one of the largest ever Department of Energy Grants and has strong implications for understanding and improving energy sources. World-class programs exist in materials science, chemical synthesis, and biological science. The strong tradition in nuclear chemistry continues today in Chemistry and has implications in imaging research at the School of Medicine.
Faculty-directed research is largely in interdisciplinary areas involving all the various areas of modern chemistry including physical, nuclear, organic, inorganic, and biochemistry. Given this broad outlook, the department has a flexible program of graduate study to promote research at the interface of chemistry and materials science, biology, engineering, and medicine. For example, synthetic organic chemists work in areas related to biology and chemical analysis; physical and inorganic chemists do research in materials and biophysics; analytical chemists work in biochemistry and biophysics, to name just a few.
Further evidence of the interdisciplinary nature of the department is the faculty participation in collaborative research centers on campus, including the Center for Materials Innovation (CMI), the International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES), the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences (DBBS), the Siteman Cancer Center, and the Institute for Clinical and Translational Sciences (ICTS).