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Master of Science in Chemistry - Degree Requirements

Placement Exams - The placement exams are used to assess undergraduate preparation. Students are expected to meet the requirement in four of the six areas: analytical, biochemistry, biology, inorganic, organic and physical chemistry. Graduate students in Chemistry must pass exams in analytical, organic, and physical chemistry as well as either in inorganic or biochemistry. Graduate students in Biochemistry must pass exams in organic, analytical, and biochemistry as well as either in biology or physical chemistry. In addition to subject placement exams, all incoming graduate students must take an analytical writing exam in order to assess the ability to communicate effectively in English. The analytical writing exam may be waived under certain conditions including a minimum score of 4 on the GRE Writing Assessment Test.

Required Courses - The degree program consists of 30 semester units to be completed with a minimum GPA of 3.0. The following courses are required:

Chemistry 505A,B - Seminar in Chemistry ( 2 units)
Chemistry 598 - Thesis (2-4 units)
Chemistry 599 - Independent Graduate Research (3-6 units)

The remaining units are divided into core courses and electives.

Core Courses (9 units)
Typical core courses offered in the sub disciplines of chemistry are listed below.

Analytical:
Chem 511 - Theory of Separations
Chem 512 - Advanced Instrumentation
Chem 553 - Kinetics and Spectroscopy

Biochemistry:
Chem 541 - Protein Biochemistry
Chem 542 - Nucleic Acid Chemistry
Chem 546 - Metabolism and Catalysis

Inorganic:
Chem 425 - Advanced Inorganic Chemistry
Chem 431 - Advanced Organic Chemistry
Chem 552 - Kinetics and Spectroscopy

Organic:
Chem 431 - Advanced Organic Chemistry
Chem 535 - Organic Synthesis
Chem 537 - Organic Spectroscopy

Physical:
Chem 512 - Advanced Instrumentation
Chem 551 - Quantum Chemistry
Chem 552 - Kinetics and Spectroscopy

Electives (9-12 units)
In addition to the core courses, students must complete a minimum of nine semester units of electives at the 400- or 500-level. Courses in physics or biology may be used as electives with approval of the Graduate Committee.

Seminar
As part of the Chemistry 505A requirement, graduate students shall attend department seminars over a one-year period and also give four short oral presentations during that time period. Each student also conducts a thorough review of the literature of a topic approved by the department and presents a fifty-minute seminar to the department as part of the Chemistry 505B requirement.

Research
The primary requirement for the master's degree is an original independent research project culminating in a written master's thesis accompanied by an oral thesis defense. Students may begin research after two placement exams have been successfully completed.