Graduate studies in Chemistry at KU are intended to prepare graduate students for any of the multitude of career pathways available to individuals who hold a doctorate in the Chemical Sciences. Graduate studies differ from the undergraduate experience in that each activity and requirement of the graduate program is designed to prepare students to become independent, creative practitioners of Chemistry.
Chemists at KU still make new materials and find new and exciting applications for these compounds, and study how chemical reactions occur. We apply this knowledge to developing compounds that fight disease, to creating cleaner and more efficient chemical processes for industry and to applying chemistry in other manners that benefit society. Striving for a Ph.D. or M.S. degree is about creating and completing an independent, original research project in the chemical sciences. For KU students, this experience becomes the foundation for their future careers in the increasingly diverse scientific enterprise.
Research in Chemistry graduate programs used to take place exclusively in the laboratory. At KU, students apply a broader definition of the term laboratory to include many other types of research environments:
Chemistry is an incredibly multidisciplinary science at KU. As the tools we have developed to study molecular processes have become ever more powerful, Chemists have been able to study more and more complicated systems. In our department, graduate students examine projects including the location and function of neurotransmitters in the brain, how supercritical fluids can enhance the activity and selectivity of catalysts for chemical transformations, the details of what happens at the solid/liquid interface as materials begin to melt, how nuclear pore membrane proteins open to allow access to the genetic material in the nucleus of the cell, and how the HIV virus does such an effective job of evading detection by the human immune system. Chemical Sciences research at KU is an extremely exciting collaborative experience. Let’s take a look at some of the key elements of the graduate experience.
Structure of Graduate Study in Chemistry. The common thread that runs through all aspects of graduate study in Chemistry is the effort to identify and complete an original research project. During the first semester of graduate school, students explore the research of faculty in various divisions and choose a research advisor. The nature of this research project is determined by the interests of both the student and the student’s faculty research advisor. Research projects can be extremely multidisciplinary, often involving collaborations with researchers in biochemistry, pharmacy and engineering programs. During the first two years of graduate school, students complete graduate coursework, which is designed to provide students with the knowledge they need to design and implement their own research projects. Students begin their research projects as soon as they have chosen an advisor, and these projects continue throughout the term of their graduate study. During the third year, Ph.D. aspirants write and defend and original research proposal to achieve formal candidacy for the Ph.D. degree. The completion and defense of a written thesis describing the doctoral research project is the culmination of graduate study.
Support for Graduate Study in Chemistry. Like all major Chemistry graduate programs, KU strives to provide support for the tuition costs and living expenses of graduate students in academic good standing throughout the term of their graduate study. Students who apply to our program are automatically considered for support as a teaching assistant and are entered into consideration for a range of departmental and university scholarships. About two-thirds of our graduate students are supported on research assistantships provided by Federal research grants from agencies like the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Energy. These research assistantships allow the student to devote full time to pursuing their research projects. A typical Ph.D. student can expect to spend three or four years supported on a research assistantship, and one to two years supported on a teaching assistantship. The teaching assistantship pays graduate students to teach several sections of a Chemistry laboratory course while they are continuing their graduate studies.
Degree Progress and Employment. The doctoral program in Chemistry is designed to be completed in a minimum of 4 years, though most students take longer than this to complete a Ph.D. degree. Across the nation, graduate study in Chemistry takes an average of five and a half years. KU’s Chemistry graduate program is perfectly in line with this trend: The average graduate student takes 5.7 years to complete our program. (Students can complete M.S. degree program in 3 years.) We encourage doctoral students to complete their degrees at the earliest possible date. This allows them to gain immediate entry to the next stage of their professional careers.
Students who complete the Ph.D. program in Chemistry ultimately have a wide range of employment opportunities. Some students pursue traditional careers as analytical or synthetic chemists in the petroleum, pharmaceutical or consumer products industries. Other graduates choose to join smaller biotechnology, materials and pharmaceutical start-up companies, or choose alternative careers in fields including journalism, business or forensic science. KU has traditionally produced a large number of future Chemistry faculty, including instructors at many small liberal arts colleges and state universities. Other KU graduates choose to pursue research careers in academics, becoming faculty in graduate programs with their own federally funded research projects. KU graduate, undergraduate and postdoctoral alumni are on the faculties of some of the most prestigious universities in the world. To get a sense of where recent graduates of the KU doctoral program are employed, tour the pages describing the placement of recent graduates, and look at the biographical descriptions of some of our recent graduates.
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