Our department was founded in 1868 by Charles A. Goessmann, a student of the great organic chemist, Friedrich Woehler. More than 130 years later, we continue to provide not only the very best of mentoring for our undergraduate and graduate students, but also broad training in cutting edge educational methods, modern instrumental facilities, and original research. As the core of the chemical sciences on campus, we have numerous ties to other departments such as Chemical Engineering, Computer Science, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Physics, and Polymer Science & Engineering. Now, as at our beginning, we provide not only the highest quality of education and research, but also support to our community and our profession.

Our faculty are well funded by federal and industrial grants, and count numerous prestigious awards, such as multiple Dreyfus New Faculty and Teacher Scholar Awards, Sloan Fellowships, National Science Foundation CAREER Awards, Cottrell Research Awards, Young Investigator Awards, the Von Hippel Award for Materials Science, International Council on Main Group Chemistry Award, and Lester W. Strock Award (atomic spectroscopy), and the American Society for Mass Spectrometry Research Awards.

Our undergraduates are diverse and ambitious, pursuing a variety of internship and co-op opportunities in pharmaceutical, chemical, and biotech industries in the northeastern USA. They take advantage of fellowships and internships provided by alumni and industry, pursuing research in state-of-the-art laboratories. Undergraduate majors have gone to the University of Florence to investigate the chemistry of art conservation, the University of Puerto Rico to gain an immersion in Hispanic culture with a strong research experience, and exchange programs in Europe, to name just a few opportunities. They are highly sought by many companies and firms, especially in the northeast region.

Our graduate students have been honored by awards such as the American Chemical Society Organic Division Fellowships, the IUPAC Outstanding Dissertation, and the Materials Research Society seminar award medal. They benefit excellent facilities, proximity to scientific meetings in the eastern US corridor from Washington, DC to Boston, MA (especially nearby Gordon Conferences), and highly multidisciplinary curriculum. We are also proud to participate in the Northeast Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate, a NSF-funded grant program supporting graduate students of minority and economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

Graduate students who enter the industrial sector are highly sought by pharmaceutical, biotech, and other chemistry-related firms. They include prominent researchers and executives of leading companies such as Procter & Gamble, Schering-Plough, Monsanto, Witco (now Crompton Corp.), Ciba Specialty Chemicals, Uniroyal Chemical Co., Mitotex, and Exxon/Mobil. Our industry and alumni contacts have been strong supporters of the graduate program, providing research fellowships, collaborative research and internship opportunities, and high quality sponsored seminars.

We are a campus leader for education, not only through departmental and interdepartmental programs leading to millions of dollars in external support, but also by our own teaching excellence. In recent years, members of our department have received multiple Distinguished University Teaching awards to both faculty and teaching assistants, college Outstanding Teaching Awards , and University TEACHnology awards. Our department hosts American Chemical Society Preparing Future Faculty program that provides mentorship, guidance, and opportunities for those interested in pursuing faculty careers. We count many UMass graduates among the faculty of universities both nationally and internationally.

In short, UMass-Amherst provides top-notch role models, mentors, and facilities to enhance training for highly successful careers in academic, industrial or government sectors. We hope to hear from you!