Introduction
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 coursework, the research project comprises the bulk of the effort involved in pursuit of an advanced chemistry degree.
Programs of Study
MS Master’s students must complete at least 30 semester hours, 24 of which are coursework (typically eight courses) and six of which are research and thesis preparation. Placement examinations and consultations with a faculty advisory committee during the new-student orientation are used to select first-year study courses. Students normally choose a thesis advisor and committee during the first semester and formulate the remaining course program after consulting with them. All degree candidates must present at least one research-based seminar to the department as part of their degree program. Most students also present their 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 before the degree committee of a thesis describing the student’s original research project.
PhD Doctoral students must complete a core sequence of four courses and a selection of other courses relevant to their degree program within the first two years of study. Students must also demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of their major area by satisfactory performance on a series of written cumulative examinations (in the other areas). All degree candidates must present at least three research-based seminars to the department as part of their degree program, one of which is usually on a literary topic. The final stage of the graduate program involves the writing and defense before the degree committee of a dissertation describing the student's original research project.
Financial Aid
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 2006, the stipend was $19,000 per 12-months. Research assistantships are often 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 108 graduate students enrolled in the department, 40 of whom are women, and 51 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; 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 the Office of Computer and Network Services and the Division of Computing and Information Technology. Various laboratories in the department have high-speed SGI, Sun and Linux workstations as well as a 28.-processor cluster for parallel computations. PC and Macintosh computers are available in all departmental research labs and in many computer labs around the campus. The College of Engineering and Science has recently installed a 512-processor distributed Beowulf cluster that makes Clemson one of the top supercomputing sites in the Southeast. Clemson also participates in the high-speed Internet 2 and partners with the Center for Advanced Engineering Fibers and Films, which has a state-of-the-art reality laboratory and recently received a $1.3 million grant from the Keck Foundation to create a virtual visualization and design lab.
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 experiements 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 tools that can characterize materials with submicrometer to subnanometer spatial resolution.
The Molecular Structure Center, under the direction of 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 four 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 has a detector that uses a powerful 18-kw rotating anode source. The center also has a conventional four-circle diffractometer with a sealed tubesource. A Scintag 2000 system with a germanium detector and a seven-position automatic sample changer is used for powder diffraction. Data processing and analysis are run on numerous PCs running Microsoft Windows and Red Hat Linux. The center has access to many electronic databases, including Cambridge Structural Database, Inorganic 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., Savannah River Lab (U.S. Department of Engineering), Michelin Tire Co., Dupont Chemical Company, 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 (U.S. Department of Engineering), Beckman Coulter, Cree Semiconductors, National Institutes of Standards and Technology and Shire Laboratories. 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, Gautarn; 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.; Professor; PhD; University of North Carolin,; 1987; chemistry.
- Desmarteau, Darryl D.; Endowed Chair; PhD; University of Washington, 1966; chemistry.
- Dominy, Brian N.; Assistant Professor; PhD; Scripps Research Institute, 2001; physical chemistry.
- Dieter, R. Karl; Professor; PhD; University of Pennsylvania, 1981; chemistry.
- Echegoyen, Luis A.; Professor; PhD; University of Puerto Rico, 1974; chemistry.
- Huffman, John W.; Professor; PhD; Harvard University, 1957; chemistry.
- Hwu, Shiou-jyh; Interim Dept Chair/Head; 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 Jr, Dennis W.; Associate Professor; PhD; University of Florida; 1992; organic chemistry.
- Smith, Rhett C.; Assistant Professor; PhD; Case Western Reserve University, 2004; 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
An applicant must complete an application form and supply transcripts from the 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 the student’s background, a completed personal statement form, a completed personal statement form and a completed financial assistance form. International students must also submit a test score for the TOEFL exam. The TSE exam is not required for international students; however, a TSE score above 50 greatly improves the chances of admission. Applications are processed most quickly if all materials are sent directly to the chemistry department by March 1.
The fee for making an official application through the Clemson graduate school is normally $55; however, for applicants who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents, or who have received a degree from a U.S. college or university, or who possess sufficient English language proficiency to teach laboratory sections, the fee is covered by the Department of Chemistry. For all other applicants, application materials submitted to the chemistry department should be considered preliminary only. An official application, with a paid application fee, is required for the application to be given formal consideration.
For More Information
Steve Stuart, Graduate Director
369 Hunter Laboratories
P.O. Box 340973
Clemson, South Carolina 29634-0973
Telephone: 864-656-3065 or 888-539-8854 (toll-free)
Fax: 864-656-6613
E-mail: chemgradprogram@chemed.ces.clemson.edu
