Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry - Biological Chemistry

The Department of Chemistry, within the College of Arts and Sciences, offers courses of study leading to the degrees of Master of Arts in Teaching Chemistry, Master of Science, and Doctor of Philosophy. Students in the M.A.T. program must register through the School of Professional Development. A student in the Ph.D. program may choose dissertation research in any one of the diverse areas of chemistry represented by the interests of the program faculty, or may choose an interdisciplinary topic under the guidance of a faculty member in another program. Coordinated activities exist with several programs, and include optional concentrations in chemical physics and chemical biology.A significant number of the faculty are using their chemical expertise to explore the chemical and physical details of biological phenomena. Research programs span biological chemistry, enzyme mechanisms, protein folding, membrane structure and function, biophysics and structural biology. Techniques such as high resolution NMR, stop-flow kinetics, fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy are used to probe protein structure, function, and folding. Novel biosynthetic and chemical strategies are being used to generate small molecules for use in probing enzyme mechanisms and exploring ligand-receptor interactions.