Program Website: http://www.grad.clemson.edu/programs/Chemistry
The Department of Chemistry offers programs leading to the MS and PhD degrees with an emphasis in analytical chemistry, inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry or chemical education. Individual programs of study involve an intensive concentration in one of the traditional areas of chemistry or a concentration in a combination of areas.
Both degree programs are research-based, which means that they involve the completion and defense of an original research
project. In addition to course work, the research project comprises the bulk of the effort involved in pursuit of an advanced chemistry degree.
Programs of Study
MS To earn the master’s degree, you must complete at least 30 semester hours, 24 of which are course work (typically eight courses) and six of which are research and thesis preparation. Placement examinations and consultations with your faculty advisory committee during the new-student orientation are used to select first-year courses. You will likely choose a thesis advisor and committee during your first semester and formulate
your remaining course program after consulting with them. You must present at least one research-based seminar to the department as part of your degree program. You may also present your work outside of Clemson, for example, at a national or regional meeting of a scientific society, such as the American Chemical Society. The final stage of the graduate
degree program involves the writing and defense of a thesis describing your original research project before your degree committee.
PhD To earn the doctoral degree, you must complete a core sequence of four courses and a selection of other courses relevant to your degree program, usually within your first two years of study. You must also demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of your major area by satisfactory performance on a series of written cumulative examinations. You must also present at least two seminars to the department as a part of you degree program. The final stage of the graduate degree program involves the writing and defense of a dissertation describing your original research project before your degree committee.
Financial Aid
Almost all chemistry graduate students at Clemson are supported
by either teaching or research assistantships during the full course of their studies. Students in the first year are normally supported as teaching assistants in undergraduate laboratory sections. Stipends for teaching assistantships are competitive and change frequently. In fall 2007, the stipend was $21,000 per 12 months. Research ssistantships are available
to support students working on funded research projects. Department and University fellowships that can supplement the stipend for well-qualified applicants are also available.
Student Group
There are currently 109 graduate students enrolled in the department, 38 of whom are women, and 53 are international students.
Research Facilities
The department is housed in the Howard L. Hunter Chemistry
Laboratory, which includes more than 50,000 square feet of laboratory space for research and teaching. One of the finest research facilities in the Southeast, this building accommodates
about 100 graduate students, postdoctoral scientists and visiting scientists. It includes a satellite chemistry library that houses the field’s most important journals and supplements
extensive holdings in the University’s main library. Several chemistry research groups also occupy space in other on- and off-campus buildings.
The department maintains a broad range of multiple-user research instruments. Major research instrumentation holdings
include three Fourier-transform NMR spectrometers; an ICP Optical Emission Spectrometer; a SQUID magnetometer; X-ray powder, single-crystal and thin-film diffractometers; an electron spin resonance (ESR) spectrometer; gas chromatography/
mass spectrometer systems; a thermal analysis system and other state-of-the-art equipment maintained by individual
faculty members in support of their research programs or through the department’s research partners.
Clemson University provides a diverse and extensive computing
infrastructure supported locally within the chemistry department as well as by Clemson Computing and Information
Technology. Various laboratories in the department have clusters of high-performance workstations. PC and Macintosh computers are available in all departmental research labs and in many computer labs around the campus. Department researchers also have access to several massively parallel computers,
including a 20-TFLOP condominium cluster. Clemson also participates in the high-speed Internet2 and partners with the Center for Advanced Engineering Fibers and Films, which
has a state-of-the-art virtual reality laboratory.
The Laser Laboratory is managed by Ya-Ping Sun and his research group. The laboratory is equipped with a CW Mode locked Nd: Yag Laser, a 20-Hz Q-Switched Nd: Yag Laser and two synchronous pumped Dye Lasers. The laser configuration
is capable of conducting pump probe experiments in the nanosecond time-scale region up to the subpicosecond time-scale region.
The Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Resource Center affords easy access to modern high-resolution NMR instruments for students, postdoctoral scientists and faculty members. The primary
instrumentation includes three multinuclear high-field spectrometers that are used for routine measurements as well as for advanced one- and two-dimensional NMR experiments in molecular structure determination, molecular dynamics and chemical kinetics and thermodynamics.
Clemson’s Electronic Imaging and Analytical Services (EIAS) group is one of the Southeast’s premier analytical imaging and surface analysis facilities. Area researchers both on and off campus can take advantage of a broad range of capabilities,
including scanning electron microscopy, transmission
electron microscopy and high-vacuum surface analysis. The EIAS facility is widely used in a number of areas but particularly in nanomaterial and nanotechnology research, which depend critically on the availability of tools that can characterize materials with submicrometer to subnanometer spatial resolution.
The Molecular Structure Center, under the direction of Dr. Don Vanderveer, provides the chemistry department with methods of X-ray diffraction analysis, the most reliable and unambiguous means for determining the structure of ordered materials. The center maintains three separate diffractometer
systems for performing both powder and single-crystal diffraction experiments. These include two Rigaku diffractometers.
One is a sealed tube system equipped with a CCD area detector; the other uses a powerful 18-kW rotating anode source with a serial detector. A Scintag 2000 theta/theta system
with a germanium detector,
a seven-position automatic sample changer, and variable temperature capabilities is used for powder diffraction. Data processing and analysis are performed with a variety of commercial software packages on numerous PCs running Microsoft Windows and Red Hat Linux. The center has access to many electronic databases, including Cambridge Structural Database, Inorganic Crystal Structure Database, NIST Crystal Data File and Powder Diffraction File.
Student Outcomes
Public and private-sector employers that have recently hired Clemson chemistry graduates include Advanced Photonic Crystals, Milliken Chemical Co., Dow Chemical Co., Constellation
Energy, Savannah River Lab (US Department of Engineering), Michelin Tire Co., Dupont Chemical Co., Merck
Chemical, Clariant Corp., Micromass Inc., Chiron Corp., Toyota Co., US Army Research Lab, NASA Langley Research
Center, Transtech Pharma, Idaho National Engineering
and Environmental Lab (US Department of Engineering), Beckman Coulter, Cree Semiconductors, National Institutes of Standards and Technology and Shire Laboratories. In addition,
graduates have found employment at universities such as Harvard, Kennesaw State, the University of Connecticut and UCLA.
Faculty
• Appling, Jeffrey R.; Associate Professor; PhD, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1985; chemistry.
• Arya, Dev Priya; Associate Professor; PhD, Northeastern University,
1996; bio-organic chemistry
.• Bhattacharyya, Gautam; Assistant Professor; PhD, Purdue University,
2004; chemical education.
• Brumaghim, Julia; Assistant Professor; PhD, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, 1999; inorganic chemistry.
• Christensen, Kenneth A.; Assistant Professor; PhD, University of Michigan, 1997; chemistry.
• Chumanov, George; Associate Professor; PhD, Moscow State University
(Russia), 1988; optics and spectroscopy.
• Cooper, Melanie M.; Alumni Professor; PhD, Manchester University
(England), 1978; chemistry.
• Creager, Stephen E.; Dept. Chair; PhD, University of North Carolina,
1987; chemistry.
• Desmarteau, Darryl D.; Endowed Chair; PhD, University of Washington,
1966; chemistry.
• Dieter, R. Karl; Professor; PhD, University of Pennsylvania, 1981; chemistry.
• Dominy, Brian N.; Assistant Professor; PhD, Scripps Research Institute, 2001; physical chemistry.
• Echegoyen, Luis A.; Professor; PhD, University of Puerto Rico, 1974; chemistry.
• Huffman, John W.; Professor; PhD, Harvard University, 1957; chemistry.
• Hwu, Shiou-Jyh; Professor; PhD, Iowa State University, 1985; inorganic chemistry.
• Kholodenko, Arkady L.; Professor; PhD, University of Chicago, 1982; biophysics.
• Kolis, Joseph W.; Professor; PhD, Northwestern University, 1984; chemistry.
• Marcus, Richard K.; Professor; PhD, University of Virginia, 1986; chemistry.
• McNeill, Jason D.; Assistant Professor; PhD, University of California-
Berkeley, 1999; physical chemistry.
• Pennington Jr, William T.; Professor; PhD, University of Arkansas, 1983; inorganic chemistry.
• Perahia, Dvora; Associate Professor; PhD, Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel), 1990; physical chemistry.
• Smith, Rhett C.; Assistant Professor; PhD, Case Western Reserve University, 2004; organic chemistry.
• Smith Jr, Dennis W.; Professor; PhD, University of Florida, 1992; organic chemistry.
• Stuart, Steven J.; Associate Professor; PhD, Columbia University, 1995; chemical physics.
• Sun, Ya-Ping; Named Professor; PhD, Florida State University, 1989; chemistry.
Applying
You must complete an online application and supply the following
materials: transcripts from your undergraduate program and any prior graduate programs; test scores from the GRE general exam (verbal, quantitative and analytical); at least two letters of recommendation from people familiar with your background; a personal statement; and a completed financial assistance form. If you are an international student, you must also submit a test score for the TOEFL exam. The TSE exam is not required; however, a TSE score above 50 greatly improves
the chances of admission. Applications are processed most quickly if all materials are received by March 1.
The fee for making an official application through the Graduate
School is $65 ($75 for international students); however, fee waivers are available for a large number of applicants. You are encouraged to contact the Department of Chemistry directly to obtain a fee waiver before submitting a full application. You may apply on the web at www.grad.clemson.edu/Admission.php.
For More Information
Steve Stuart, Graduate Director
369 Hunter Laboratories
PO Box 340973
Clemson, South Carolina 29634-0973
Telephone: 864-656-3065 or 888-539-8854 (toll-free)
Fax: 864-656-6613
Email: chemgradprogram@chemed.ces.clemson.edu
