The investigation of molecular structure and mechanistic processes is fundamental to chemistry at all levels. Analysis, detection, spectroscopy, microscopy and many other tools of physical and
analytical chemistry fall into this broad and vital area. Various types of instrumental analysis are carried out by many groups, some of which are primarily interested in development of methodology, and some of which aim to apply modern physical and instrumental techniques to investigate important chemical and biological problems.

Campus and departmental facilities for instrumental chemistry are superb. In addition to individual investigator equipment including circular dichroism, fluorescence, laser spectroscopy, polarizing microscopy, and stop-flow kinetic analysis, a variety of large facilities are available to the
campus community (many for hands-on use). These include the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility, the Mass Spectrometry and Molecular Weight Facility, the X-ray Structure Determination Facility, and the W. M. Keck Microscopy Facility. See the Facilities link above for more details.

A major strength of the department is experimental bioanalytical and biophysical chemistry. A wide array of methodologies are being applied to biological problems ranging from calorimetry to microscopy, from magnetic resonance to absorption and emission spectroscopy, from high performance liquid chromatography to surface plasmon resonance mass spectrometry. This broad area of strength is combined with other strengths in mathematical analysis of signal output, linkage of separations technology to detection technology, and application of new magnetic resonance methods to structure determination (among others).


For participating faculty see Research Matrix.