Mission Statement

Modern chemistry occupies a central position among the sciences. The goal of chemical science is to discover the fundamental regularities by which matter in its multitude of aggregations interacts with energy in its many forms. Mathematical models and physical principles are utilized in the interpretation of chemical concepts. The organization of chemical knowledge leads to an understanding of natural phenomena in the real world of earth and life sciences.

The departmental academic program is broad-based and multi-tracked. It is designed to provide essential preparation for students to pursue professional careers and/or advanced studies in chemistry or related disciplines, such as agricultural chemistry, biological chemistry, clinical chemistry, environmental chemistry, and forensics chemistry. The department offers course work for chemistry majors to meet the requirements of medical and other professional schools in the health sciences, including dentistry, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine. It also cooperates with other department and the School of Education in developing a balanced program of academic and professional preparation for chemistry majors who seek teaching credentials. For more information about careers in chemistry click here.

The Department of Chemistry is on the approved list of the American Chemical Society. A program leading to a chemistry major can be designed to meet the standards prescribed for the certificate of the American Chemical Society by its Committee on Professional Training.

Equipment

Students in the CSUB Chemistry Department have access to a virtual alphabet soup of state-of-the-art scientific instruments. The chemistry department has purchased several new instruments and upgrades in the last several years: an ICP-MS, a Shimadzu GC-MS with direct probe and CI options, a research grade Nicolet FT-IR spectrometer, a research grade Shimadzu gradient-HPLC with autosampler, a few new UV-vis spectrophotometers, an Anasazi computerization and FT upgrade to the Varian 360 NMR, and a TecMag upgrade to the Bruker 200 MHz FT-NMR that allows remote operation. This new equipment is on top of what the department already had: a GC-MS, an FT-IR, an HPLC, UV-vis spectrophotometers, and a walk in freezer. Other resources utilized by our students include two greenhouses (one with entirely computerized environmental controlls), a PC lab, Mac lab, and UNIX computer lab.