Overview
With 10 faculty and approximately 80 chemistry majors, we are small enough to focus on the needs of individual students but large enough to provide the resources for a rich and varied educational environment.
Scholarships
Scholarship opportunities abound here, due to the generous support of our past graduates and friends of the department. One of our main strengths is our excellent students! In recent years, four of our undergraduates have been awarded Goldwater Scholarships and two have been awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships.
Research Opportunities
We emphasize the importance of research at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. All faculty members are actively engaged in research, providing opportunities for students to learn and grow outside of the traditional classroom. USD's Chemistry Department is home to a National Science Foundation (NSF) Northern Plains Undergraduate Research Center (NPURC) site, providing research and summer employment opportunities for students.
Career Opportunities
Our chemistry majors enjoy a wide variety of career opportunities upon graduation. Recent graduates have attended medical school (U. Iowa, U. Nebraska Medical Center, USD), dental school (U. Minn., Indiana, Creighton) and top graduate programs in chemistry or biochemistry (UC-Berkeley, Iowa State U., Stanford). Many have also chosen to enter the job market and are enjoying successful careers at companies like Novartis Pharmaceuticals and CIMA Laboratories, among others.
Resources and Facilities
Over one million dollars' worth of equipment is accessible to all students engaged in research projects with faculty, as well as a machine shop and glassblowing facility. We maintain many instruments for student use, including several gas chromatographs, a high-performance liquid chromatograph, an atomic absorption spectrometer, an inert atmosphere glove box and a variety of electrochemical instruments. Numerous microcomputers, scattered throughout the department, are connected to the local network. We also subscribe to more than 70 journals, available both in the I.D. Weeks Library and online.
Our department and research facilities are located in the Churchill-Haines and Pardee Laboratories on campus.
Chemistry Club
The goal of this student organization is to make chemistry more exciting and intiguing for a wide variety of students. The group sponsors multiple activities off- and on-campus, such as an elementary outreach program and a Christmas/Welcome Back party with the chemistry department faculty.
