Research Areas

The Department of Chemistry is one of the foundation departments of the University and has a faculty that is very active in research. The Department, which has an international reputation in several areas, is well equipped with 'state-of-the-art' instrumentation to support its research. The Department is also active in the research program of the Research Centre for Materials and Surface Science, which involves collaboration with Physics.

The research programs of the Department of Chemistry fall into five main areas. They are:

Analytical Chemistry
Chemical Structure and Energetics (including spectroscopy and computational chemistry)
Inorganic Chemistry
Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry
Surface and Materials Chemistry

These areas are not the same as the traditional division of Chemistry into the areas of Inorganic, Organic, Physical and Analytical, nor are they completely separate and distinct. There is considerable interaction between groups, and in many cases they share research tools and methods.

A very important component of the Department's research programs is the training of postgraduate students in research methods generally and in the application of the latest specialised instrumental techniques.