Department of Chemistry
http://www.utdallas.edu/dept/chemistry/
Robert A. Welch Chair in Chemistry; Professor of Chemistry: Ray H.
Baughman
Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Chair in Systems Biology; Professor of
Chemistry: A. Dean Sherry
Professors: Kenneth J. Balkus, Jr., Rockford
K. Draper (Biology), John P. Ferraris, Bruce E. Gnade
(Electrical Engineering), Inga H. Musselman,
Associate Professors: Michael C. Biewer, Gregg
R. Dieckmann, Jinming Gao (UT Southwestern), Warren J. Goux,
Paul Pantano, John W. Sibert
Assistant Professors: Jung-Mo Ahn,
Mihaela C.Stefan, Steven O. Nielsen, Jie
Zheng
Affiliated Professors: Lee A. Bulla (Biology), Anvar
A. Zakhidov (Physics)
Research Professors: Garry E. Kiefer, Duck Joo
Yang
Emeritus Professors: Richard A. Caldwell
Senior Lecturers: Sergio Cortes, Sandhya R. Gavva, Claudia Taenzler
The Ph.D.
program is designed to produce graduates with a focus on innovation and problem
solving in current materials, biotechnology, and industrial process research
and development. These graduates, with their broad course background, research
skills, and practical attitudes should find ready employment in industry or
academic positions. A spectrum of courses provides the student with a broad
knowledge of chemistry.
The Master
of Science program offers students the opportunity to prepare for positions in
industry, for further training in related scientific fields, or for further
training in chemistry.
The
department has the equipment and facilities necessary for routine use by its
faculty and students in teaching and research. Larger items include: 270 MHz
(2), and 500 MHz multi-nuclear FT-NMR spectrometers; a powder x-ray diffractometer; assorted spectrophotometers utilizing
fluorescence, phosphorescence and absorption; three protein synthesizers; gel
permeation chromatographs; workstations with molecular modeling software; and
scanning tunneling and atomic force microscopes. Chemistry also participates in
the Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute which
houses instrumentation for modern materials science research. Facilities
external to chemistry, but readily available to its use, include a library, the
computer center, the cleanroom, and well-equipped
machine and electronics shops.
The
University’s general admission requirements are discussed here.
Undergraduate
preparation equivalent to the degree of Bachelor of Science in Chemistry is
required. The Chemistry program has no other requirements above the general
admission requirements beginning on page 24. However, admission is competitive
and is decided case by case on the basis of the quality of previous relevant
academic work, GRE scores, letters of reference, the student's statement of
academic interests and, for foreign students, evidence of fluency in English.
Foreign students with TOEFL scores less than 600 (paper test), 250 (computer
test), or 100 (internet test) are admitted only in special circumstances.
The
University’s general degree requirements are discussed here.
Graduate
students in chemistry are expected to demonstrate fundamental knowledge of
lecture and laboratory skills by completing the following courses with a grade
of B or better.
CHEM
5314 Advanced Physical Chemistry
CHEM 5331 Advanced Organic Chemistry I
CHEM 5341 Advanced Inorganic Chemistry I
CHEM 5355 Analytical Techniques I
A
minimum of 30 total graduate semester hours is required.
The M.S. degree can be pursued on a full- or part-time basis.
Other
Course Requirements
The
remaining requirements beyond the 12-hour core listed above may be satisfied in
one of the two ways listed below.
1.
Presentation and defense of a written master's thesis. The student must
complete, as a minimum, 15 credit hours of research or other graduate electives
plus CHEM 8398. A Supervising Committee will be appointed to guide the
student's thesis work and to assess the completed thesis.
2.
Completion of an approved internship in an industrial or governmental
laboratory. The student must complete, as a minimum, 18 credit hours of
research, chemistry internship or other graduate electives.
Three of the
graduate semester hours beyond the core may be fulfilled by taking an approved
graduate elective course.
A
Supervising Committee must approve an internship in advance. The final written
report must be defended before this committee and filed in the Chemistry
department office.
Normally
pursued by full-time students enrolled in a minimum of 9 credit hours of
approved graduate level courses per semester.
In addition
to the 12-semester hour core course requirements listed above, students seeking
the Ph.D. degree must take two upper level elective courses that are approved
by the student's faculty research advisor and the Chemistry Graduate Advisor.
Ph.D. students are expected to complete these six required courses within the
first two years of their enrollment. CHEM 8399 is also required as part of the
preparation of the dissertation. Additional courses may be required by the
student's Supervisory Committee.
Well-prepared
students may request substitution of portions of the course requirements from
the Committee on Graduate Studies in Chemistry. At least three organized
courses must be taken at the University of Texas at Dallas. The opportunity
exists to take elective courses during their second and subsequent years.
Qualifying
Examination: Original Research Proposal
All Ph.D.
students must take the qualifying examination. In the second year,
students seeking the Ph.D. degree are required to write, present, and defend an
original research proposal. In addition to providing valuable experience to the
student, this exam is used to assess the student's originality and skills in
organizing an effective approach to solving a novel problem. The results of
this examination will be one criterion upon which admission to doctoral
candidacy will be judged.
Students
have the option of completing a thesis Master's degree as part of their
doctoral candidacy preparation, unless this requirement has been satisfied at
the time of admission. The doctoral research project may be conducted in the
same laboratory as the Master's degree research or, in order to gain a broader
research experience, in another laboratory. A manuscript embodying a substantial
portion of the Ph.D. dissertation research accomplished by the student must be
submitted to a suitable professional refereed journal prior to the public
seminar and dissertation defense. A public seminar, successful defense of the
dissertation, and its acceptance by the Supervising Committee and the Graduate
Dean conclude the requirements for the Ph.D.
Within the
Chemistry program, opportunities exist for course work and/or research in
nanotechnology, biochemistry/biotechnology, organic, inorganic, materials,
analytical, and physical chemistry. The opportunity to take course work in
several of the other university programs allows the student to prepare for
interdisciplinary work. Specific topics within these broad research areas
include nanoscience (carbon nanotubes,
sensors, actuators, nanoscale devices, synthesis of nanoporous materials); organic solid-state and polymer
chemistry (energy storage, electrochromism,
light-emitting polymers, solar cells, membrane separations); inorganic
solid-state (zeolites, membranes, laser ablation,
sensors, fuel cells, electrospinning); biological NMR
(structural biology, using NMR active tracers to follow metabolism in cells,
isolated tissues and in vivo); supramolecular
chemistry (design of novel host-guest systems; biologically responsive MRI
agents, design, synthesis and study of macrocyclic
receptors with applications in catalysis, materials science, and medicine);
scanning probe microscopy (instrument development, image contrast, application
to polymer microstructure); bioanalytical and bionano chemistry, synthetic chemistry (macrocycles,
small protein domains to study membrane fusion; DNA recognition and
modification; metalloprotein function); biochemistry/enzymology (study of oxidative stress; oxidative metabolism
of signaling molecules; enzymology of monooxygenation, molecular modeling; and catalysis).