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Main Departmental Office
Chemistry Building, Room 101

Mailing address:
1155 Union Circle #305070
Denton, TX 76203-5017
940-565-2713

Web site: www.chem.unt.edu
E-mail: chem@unt.edu

William Acree, Chair

Faculty 

Student stipends, including teaching assistantships and research fellowships, are available from a variety of sources. Stipends may range up to $25,000 per year depending upon demonstrated academic and research competence. Further information may be obtained from the chair of the Graduate Affairs Committee.

Research

A variety of research programs are in progress involving analytical, computational, inorganic, organic and physical chemistry, as well as chemistry education. Specific areas of study include synthesis, properties and kinetic investigations of transition metal carbonyls; syntheses and properties of nitrogen heterocycles; NMR applications to organometallic chemistry; gas phase kinetics; spectroelectrochemistry; morphology of inorganic precipitates; thermodynamics; Raman scattering; materials analysis and development; properties of surface adsorbed molecules; crystallography; polymer liquid crystals; interfacial processes; organosilicon synthesis and kinetics; polycyclic cage compounds; ferroelectric thin films; basis set development; computer-aided catalyst design; computational organic chemistry; chemical vapor deposition; and reactivities of metal and oxide surfaces.

The department possesses more than $6.3 million of capital equipment, including 400 MHz and 500 MHz multinuclear FT-NMR with CP/MAS solids capability, Auger/ESCA, FT-IR, Raman, mass spectrometers, HPLC, GCs, GCMSs, Powder XRD, single crystal XRD, AA, UV-vis, electrochemical analyzers, stopped-flow kinetic analyzer, pulsed-laser flash photolysis, laser-induced fluorescence spectrometers, thermal analysis, ICP-MS. Within the chemistry department, there are four computer server rooms, which house several state-of-the-art Linux computer clusters and super computers, entailing more than 2,000 processors available for the department’s computational chemistry research endeavors.

Studies are conducted with the assistance of graduate and undergraduate students, research technicians and post-doctoral fellows. PhD staff support are employed in the x-ray diffraction lab, NMR facilities and instrumental labs. Other technical personnel include full-time instrument technicians and a glassblower.

Financial support for research is provided by the Robert A. Welch Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Army Research Office, the Office of Naval Research and the Department of Energy.

Additional sources of research funding include the Texas Advanced Research and Technology Program, Texas Instruments, Electrical Power Research Institute, Sun Exploration, the UNT Faculty Research Fund and several industrial fellowships.

Degree Programs

The department offers graduate programs leading to the following degrees:

• Master of Science with a major in chemistry 
• Doctor of Philosophy with a major in chemistry 

Concentrations are available at the master’s level in analytical, industrial, inorganic, organic or physical chemistry or chemistry education.

Concentrations at the doctoral level are available in analytical, inorganic, organic or physical chemistry or chemistry education.

Additional information regarding degree requirements are contained in the Department of Chemistry Graduate Policy Bulletin. A copy can be obtained from the chair of the Graduate Affairs Committee.

Admission Requirements

Departmental forms for applying for teaching and research support may be obtained from the Student Services Office in the Department of Chemistry or from the department web site. Complete college transcripts, two letters of recommendation, statement of purpose, C.V. and acceptable GRE scores are required for conditional admission. Contact the department for information concerning competitive admission test scores.

New students should contact the Student Services Office immediately upon arriving on campus for information on departmental requirements. A departmental policy bulletin that delineates these requirements is available to students.

Students must take placement examinations covering undergraduate analytical, inorganic, organic and physical chemistry. These examinations are given during registration week of each long term/semester. The results of these examinations are used for counseling purposes. The chemistry department employs a core course system that requires its students to take graduate courses in specified areas.

Advisory Program

The chair of the chemistry Graduate Affairs Committee serves as advisor to the beginning student. When a field of specialization and a major professor have been selected, a committee is then selected in consultation with his or her research advisor to serve in an advisory capacity. The minimum number of committee members is two for the master’s and four for the doctoral advisory committee. The student meets yearly with this committee for research progress reports and consultation. PhD committees will also choose an individual from outside the university who is knowledgeable in the student’s area of research to serve in an advisory capacity to the committee.

Professional Science Master’s Degree Option

The Professional Science Master’s (PSM) is an innovative graduate degree option designed to allow students to pursue advanced training in science while simultaneously developing workplace skills highly valued by employers. PSM degrees prepare students for science and technology careers in business, government and nonprofit organizations. PSM degrees are MS degrees in an emerging or interdisciplinary area of science, mathematics or technology and contain a set of professional skills courses selected from such areas as business, communication, policy, law and leadership. Contrary to a traditional master’s degree, a thesis is not required but a 3 or 6 semester credit hour internship is included within the science requirement. The program leads to a non-thesis degree requiring 36 semester hours of formal course work, at least one-half of which (18 hours) must be in chemistry. Students must meet the normal proficiency requirements set forth by the departments. Supplemental non-chemistry courses must include at least 12 hours and must be approved by the student’s committee. In addition to the formal courses, either 3 or 6 hours of the total 36 hours must comprise on-the-job research training in an industrial position (or equivalent on-the-job training).

The Department of Chemistry offers one PSM degree option:

• Master of Science with a major in chemistry (industrial chemistry)

Additional information about this degree can be found at www.psm.unt.edu and www.sciencemasters.com.

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