Requirements for the Degree:
A minimum of 30 credit hours of graduate-level courses is required with an overall B average (3.00). The department course requirements are a minimum of eighteen credit hours in graduate level courses (600-level or higher) excluding research and dissertation (CHEM 868 and CHEM 969 ). At least six three-credit courses must be taken. Specific course requirements for each division are listed below. Scientific courses offered by other Departments may be counted towards the course requirements as courses outside the student’s division, if approved by the faculty in the student’s division and the Director of Graduate Studies. The student must achieve at least a cumulative grade point average of 3.00 in the courses that fulfill this requirement. The course requirements, including the division’s requirements, should be satisfied within four semesters of entering the program.
First year-graduate students are required to take a non-credit one-hour special seminar, CHEM865-010 (new student seminar). Graduate students must also register for one of the topical seminar series (CHEM865-XXX - Biochemistry Seminar, Organic/Inorganic Seminar, Physical/Analytical Seminar), as well as Colloquia (CHEM865-XXX). The PhD degree requires successful completion of a candidacy exam, which includes an oral and written proposal component. The PhD degree requires a thesis based on original research and a final public oral defense of the dissertation.
Specific course requirements by division are outlined below. If a student wishes to take courses other than those specified, then each of these courses must be approved in writing: (a) at the Fall and Spring advisements for first-year graduate students by the representative from the respective Division on the Graduate Curriculum Committee, and (b) at other times by the research advisor.
The remaining courses satisfying the departmental course requirement of 18 credits in graduate level coursework can be selected from offerings in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, or appropriate graduate level courses in other departments.
All students pursuing a degree program in Chemistry and Biochemistry need to secure the written permission from both their research advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies prior to enrolling in any course not bearing a CHEM6XX or CHEM8XX designation.
Analytical Chemistry:
Six credit hours of graduate analytical courses from the list below, plus six additional credit hours of graduate coursework approved by the research advisor.
Biochemistry:
At least nine credits in graduate-level biochemistry courses. CHEM 641 must be taken as one of these courses unless this requirement is waived by the Biochemistry Division. The Division, or the student’s research advisor, must approve the courses used to satisfy the Departmental course requirement of 18 credits in graduate level courses. Biochemistry courses that can satisfy these requirements include:
Inorganic Chemistry:
Nine credit hours from the following courses:
Note
Two additional courses (6 credit hrs) with a CHEM-63X or CHEM-83 designation (one of these courses may be audited).
It is strongly recommended that the courses taken outside of Organic Chemistry should be chosen from the following list:
Physical Chemistry:
A minimum of three courses from the list below.
One may subtitute for one of these four courses from related three-credit courses upon the approval of the research advisor.
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