School of Chemistry and Materials Science
School of
Chemistry and Materials Science
Overview
Chemistry has revolutionized modern society through synthesizing new materials and probing the fundamental processes of life. RIT offers chemistry and biochemistry undergraduate degree programs that prepare you for professional work in both research laboratory and industrial settings. We encourage collaboration with physicists, biologists, imaging scientists, geologists, and other scientists in team settings.
Certified by the American Chemical Society, RIT's undergraduate programs in chemistry and biochemistry meet a wide variety of quality standards in their curriculum, teaching, research, and intellectual climate. This certification ensures a rigorous program and strong career preparation.
10
New or renovated labs for teaching research
27.6K
Square feet of teaching, research laboratories, and support facilities
94%
Of our graduates spent at least two semesters experiencing outside-of-classroom learning
Latest News
-
August 14, 2019
![Student gives presentation on phage therapy.]()
RIT’s Inclusive Excellence program engages rising sophomore students in research
RIT is helping more students from nontraditional pathways get hands-on experience in scientific research early in their academic careers through a unique summer program focused on mentorship.
-
July 26, 2019
![Person holding extinguisher puts out a fire outdoors.]()
Curious Kids: How does the stuff in a fire extinguisher stop a fire?
senior lecturer of chemistry and materials science, explains how to put out a fire for the "Curious Kids" series published by The Conversation.
-
June 11, 2019
![Students wearing eye protection conduct experiment with a multimeter and lamp.]()
RIT to host youth summer workshops on clean energy and fuel cells July 9-12
RIT is hosting workshops this summer to help high school students from the Rochester area learn about the science behind clean energy and fuel cells. The “Clean Energy: Electricity Generation Using Fuel Cells” workshops feature hands-on experiments and tours of RIT’s facilities.
Featured Work
Identifying Counterfeit Pharmaceuticals
Taylor Wolf ’18 (biochemistry) ’18
Taylor Wolf ’18 (biochemistry) conducted research with Professor Scott Williams to create a test that will identify substandard and counterfeit pharmaceuticals that could help reduce what has been a...
Undergraduate Programs
RIT’s chemistry and biochemistry programs feature rigorous, in-depth curricula that remain flexible enough to allow students to specialize in several other related fields. We offer robust undergraduate research and laboratory teaching experience opportunities, often as early as freshman year, with faculty mentorship and state-of-the-art facilities and instrumentation.
Graduate Programs
Our chemistry and materials science and engineering graduate programs prepare professional scientists by offering curricula that allow students to specialize in their chosen fields while engaging in rigorous, meaningful research using state-of-the-art instrumentation and facilities, under the guidance of a faculty mentor.