About the Department

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Oklahoma has two missions, teaching and research. Over the past several years, both areas have experienced significant growth and the department has established itself as one of the top 50 research departments in the country for chemistry and biochemistry.

We have 28 Ph.D. faculty directing research programs involving about 40 postdoctoral researchers, 100 graduate students and a good fraction of the over 200 undergraduate majors. The research effort is currently supported by over $12.5 million per year in external funding. Results from this research have resulted in an average of over 90 publications per year for the past several years.

Faculty have presented an average of 40 seminars per year at conferences and other research institutions, including invited international talks in Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Russia, United Kingdom, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Japan, China, Taiwan, Brazil and Norway. The excellence of our faculty is further evidenced by the membership of faculty on several journal editorial boards, grant review panels and by numerous national and international awards including: an NSF Career Award, a Sloan Foundation Fellowship, three Alexander von Humboldt Fellowships and a Senior Award.

Our students have gone on to win awards such as NIH postdoctoral fellowships and postdoctoral appointments at institutions including Scripps, Kent State, NIH, University of Tennessee, Washington University, University of Houston, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Harvard, Tulane, Yale, Wisconsin, Florida and Georgetown. Our graduates are found employment at many of the world's leading chemical companies such as Novartis, Smithkline, Merck, Sharpe and Dohme, Eagle-Pitcher, Halliburton, Proscript, Glaxo and Monsanto. Graduates of our department are currently on the faculties of Freiburg University, University of Muenster, University of Central Oklahoma, University of Texas-Corpus Christi, Concordia College, SUNY Purchase, University of Missouri, University of Montana and Illinois State.

Clearly, many student researchers have excelled in our environment which combines a first-rate faculty with superbly equipped and staffed laboratories in a strong department with supportive student-faculty interactions.