Overview
Princeton University and the Chemistry Ph.D. Program Provide a Stimulating Educational and Cultural Environment
Graduate students in chemistry at Princeton University learn in an especially stimulating educational environment. The program is small and highly personalized, giving every student the opportunity to work closely with faculty mentors and to engage fully in important research projects as they develop their individual capabilities within a community of scholars.
Currently, there are approximately 125 graduate students and 70 postdoctoral students in Chemistry. There are no formal divisions within the department, and communication among faculty members and students is enhanced by having facilities housed in one building complex. Collaborative projects among groups are common, as are projects between Chemistry and faculty in other departments.
The department is currently located in Frick Laboratory, which contains the classrooms, laboratories, and offices of the chemistry department. However, in fall 2010, the department will be moving into a new state-of-the-art building which is now under construction. More information and pictures can be found by following the New Building Updates link on the department's homepage.
The Princeton University Graduate Program in Chemistry is flexible and provides students with the opportunity to create an appropriate curriculum for their specific interests and career plans. Graduate courses are an essential part of a student's training, providing a focused and disciplined approach to new areas and levels of knowledge. Students may also take advantage of the rich array of courses offered in allied departments, such as the Departments of Physics and Molecular Biology, and in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. The choice of courses depends on the student's preparation and research goals. The department also maintains an extraordinarily active seminar program, featuring eminent visitors whose research is at the forefront of science.
Princeton University simultaneously strives to be one of the leading research universities and the most outstanding undergraduate college in the world. As a research university, it seeks to achieve the highest levels of distinction in the discovery and transmission of knowledge and understanding, and in the education of graduate students. At the same time, Princeton is distinctive among research universities in its commitment to undergraduate teaching. The University is located in Princeton, New Jersey, a beautiful suburban town where the cultural activities approach the number and variety ordinarily found only in large cities. Recreational opportunities are equally diverse and there is easy access to both New York City and Philadelphia.
Research at the Department of Chemistry Is Varied and Has a Tradition of Excellence
Research is the core of the graduate program, and the many research groups, each under the direction of a faculty member, are the basic educational and scholarly units of the department. Princeton's chemistry department has a tradition of excellence in experimental and theoretical physical chemistry, chemical physics, and several fields of organic chemistry. Recent additions to the faculty have strengthened the areas of synthetic organic, bioorganic, chemical biology and of materials and solid-state chemistry.
Exploration of synthetic organic chemistry continues to be an important theme in modern chemistry, and Princeton is well represented in this area with numerous projects in organocatalysis, natural product and pharmaceutical synthesis, enantioselective synthesis, organometallic synthetic methods, and bioinspired strategies for synthesis.
Theoretical investigations range broadly: time-dependent relaxation processes, atomic and molecular collisions, optimal control theory, paramagnetic and charge transfer excitations, development of new electronic structure methods with application to inorganic and organic molecules, and several theoretical aspects of solid-state and materials chemistry.
Experimental solid-state chemistry includes also the study of the structure, stability, and bonding in complex oxides and silicates, and the synthesis and properties of intercalation complexes. Surface and interface reactions, surface modification, and interfacial electrochemistry research is pursued by faculty members in the department. Biochemistry is represented in the department by research on the role of metals in biology, on the folding of proteins, on biomimetic approaches to peptide synthesis, on DNA-ligand interactions, and studies of enzyme mechanisms and inhibitor design.
A great variety of research instrumentation is available, both in the departmental instrument facility and in individual faculty members' laboratories. This instrumentation includes NMR, ESR, mass spectrometry (high-resolution and gas chromatograph integrated), and visible, ultraviolet, and infrared spectrometers. Recent instrument acquisitions include three 500 MHz NMRs with cryoprobes and autosamplers, a high resolution ESI-TOF mass spectrometer, an LC interfaced Q-TOF mass spectrometer for proteomics studies, a fast LC-triple quadrupole mass spectrometer; and a suite of bench-top FT-IR spectrometers for routine analysis. There is research equipment for ultrahigh vacuum surface studies, including electron diffraction and electron spectroscopy equipment. Tunable and fixed wavelength laser sources, gas and liquid chromatographic equipment, X-ray diffraction facilities, and controlled atmosphere dry boxes also are available to students.
Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary Research Opportunities at Princeton are Extensive and Encouraged
There are many opportunities at Princeton for interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research for graduate students in chemistry. Ongoing collaborations between chemistry faculty and faculty in several other departments (Molecular Biology, Geosciences, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Physics, Applied and Computational Mathematics) make up many of the research projects of chemistry PhD students. There are also a number of interdisciplinary research units at Princeton, including the Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI), the Princeton Research Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials (PRISM), the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, the Program in Neuroscience, the Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics, and the Program in Plasma Science and Technology. Interdisciplinary research at the forefront of science is strongly encouraged.
