Chemistry, Ph.D.

The Department of Chemistry has research programs in each of the five traditional areas of chemistry, with a bioinformatics option available in each:

• Analytical
• Biochemistry
• Biophysical
• Chemical Education
• Geology
• Organic/Medicinal
• Nutritional Sciences

Our students have the opportunity to conduct research at the interface of chemistry and biology under the guidance of our dynamic research faculty, many of whom are distinguished and noted scholars. The department’s goal is to deliver high-quality instructional programs at the graduate level to prepare students for productive careers in academia, industry and government. The emphasis of the graduate program is the training of scientists.

Many of our faculty are highly regarded leading experts in their own field and serve on panels and study sections at agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation, on the editorial board of various journals and as officers in professional societies such as the American Chemical Society and Heterocyclic Communications.

The Department has two Regents’ Professors, Drs. David Boykin and W. David Wilson, two Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholars, Dr. Binghe Wang and Dr. George Wang, and five Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scientists, Drs. Irene Weber, Markus Germann, Binghe Wang, Zhen Huang and Donald Hamelberg.

The department awards more than 25 prestigious fellowships and assistantships to outstanding Ph.D. students, including the Ambrose Pendergrast, the David Withers Boykin, the Al Baumstark and the Harry P. Hopkins Jr. Scholarship in Physical Chemistry, Graduate Fellowship in Medicinal Chemistry and the Solvay Fellowship.

In addition, about 10 graduate assistantships at $22,000 are offered in Molecular Basis of Disease and Brains and Behavior areas.

• Admissions Requirements
• Curriculum
• Tuition
• Goals & Outcomes
• Additional Information
• Description

In addition to the online graduate application, the program has the following requirements:

• A baccalaureate degree in Chemistry or a related field from an accredited college or university
• Undergraduate academic transcript.
• A Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) score of 80 or higher unless you are exempt from the TOEFL exam (see FAQs below).
• Written responses to five short-essay prompts that appear in the application.
• At least three letters of recommendation from people familiar with the student's work and background.

For more information about applying to the Ph.D. program in Chemistry, please see our Frequency Asked Questions (FAQs) page.

Program Requirements

Coursework
A minimum of 30 credit hours of graduate coursework within the core curriculum
A minimum of 40 semester hours of research of which at least 20 semester hours must be dissertation research
An additional 10 hours of graduate course electives or research

• Research Skill/Foreign Language
  Proficiency in an approved research skill or a foreign language is required. An international student whose native language is not English may be exempted from the foreign language requirement by passing a language examination.
  Students entering the program with an approved M. S. degree have satisfied this requirement.

General Examination
Students must pass a General Examination consisting of written and oral portions covering the core area representing the student’s major interest.

• Dissertation
  A dissertation is required of all candidates for the doctoral degree. The student must complete a defense (oral) of the dissertation and submit an approved (signed) dissertation, which conforms to the college requirements/guidelines.

For degree requirements, including teaching requirements, refer to the Graduate Student’s Guide to Department Requirements and Policies.

Admitted Ph.D. students are offered a tuition waiver and stipend.

• Communication: Students will demonstrate the ability to communicate effectively in written and oral forms, read and demonstrate an understanding of scientific literature for content and critically analyze claims made in scientific literature. They will demonstrate an understanding of scientific terminology, work effectively and productively in group settings, perform, analyze and be able to relate experiments that address a problem in chemical sciences.
• Critical Thinking: Students will demonstrate the ability to construct reasonable hypotheses while asking scientific questions, design and conduct investigations about a variety of chemical problems and understand and analyze experimental results. They will formulate and defend explanations of theory in chemistry, solve unique problems based on learned factual matter and effectively perform laboratory experiments.
• Technology: Students will demonstrate the ability to plan and conduct experiments using advanced research infrastructure, use computer and computer graphics for data analysis, use computers and online resources to access chemical databases and assess chemical literature. They will use computer-based software to conduct molecular modeling of chemical structures, use word processing software applications, use the Internet and online resources and use advanced instrumentation to solve novel problems in chemistry.
• Quantitative Skills: Students will use complex and advanced mathematical models and equations to solve complex problems to understand theory in chemistry, such as fitting of pH profiles of kinetic isotope effects and quantum mechanical tunneling of hydride ions in enzymatic and chemical reactions. They understand error analysis to validate experimental results and translate problem situations into symbolic representations for the purpose of solving those problems.
• Contemporary issues: Students will demonstrate the ability to know how chemistry can help solve problems in society, for example, how the study of chemical structures and interactions create or solve disease states such as cancer and other diseases. They will understand chemical safety and waste control and their impact on society and perform and analyze experiments that address a problem in the chemical sciences.