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The College of Arts & Sciences
The Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology at Cornell has been home to some of the world's most distinguished chemists, including four Nobel Prize winners and two MacArthur "Genius" Awards. Our faculty are renowned for their groundbreaking research in many areas, ranging from nanoscale materials and polymers to supramolecular chemistry. Whether you are an undergraduate exploring the discipline or a graduate student working on a Ph.D., you will be able to conduct cutting-edge research with the leading chemists in the field today.
As a graduate student in Chemistry & Chemical Biology, you will receive training across the chemical sciences while focusing on one of five in-depth programs of study: Analytical, Inorganic, Organic, Physical, or Theoretical. You will conduct advanced research with our distinguished faculty or you can join a laboratory at one of the state-of-the-art research facilities at Cornell, such as the Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility (CNF) or Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS)
Nearly all graduate students work as Teaching Assistants in undergraduate Chemistry & Chemical Biology courses in their first year in the program. Admission to the graduate program guarantees at least five years of full financial support as long as you show satisfactory progress toward your Ph.D. degree.
Majoring in Chemistry & Chemical Biology at Cornell will allow you to explore the foundations of the discipline and the fields it intersects with—the Life Sciences, Physics, and Engineering. The undergraduate program will prepare you for a variety of careers in industry, academia, government, and the non-profit sector.
Here are a few of our undergraduate courses:
Cornell researchers have discovered a way for ammonia oxidizing archaea, one of the most abundant types of microorganisms on Earth, to produce nitrous oxide, a potent and long-lasting greenhouse gas.
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Cornell researchers Greeshma Gadikota, Phil Milner and Tobias Hanrath discuss their carbon capture research, including a new experimental CAPTURE-Lab at Cornell’s Combined Heat and Power Plant.
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Beneficial gut microbes and the body work together to fine-tune fat metabolism and cholesterol levels, according to a new preclinical study by investigators from Weill Cornell Medicine and the Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell’s Ithaca campus.
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Cornell chemists and nanofabrication experts have joined forces to create a 2 millimeter-wide, wireless, light-activated device to simplify electrochemistry for broad use.
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Researchers from five colleges, including Arts and Sciences, have received awards to support work on sustainable energy systems.
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The award recognizes scientists, engineers and science policymakers who have given unstintingly over their careers to advance energy science and technology.
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Cornell researchers have discovered a pathway by which E. coli regulates zinc levels, an insight that could advance the understanding of metal regulation in bacteria and lead to antibacterial applications such as in medical instruments.
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The researchers say that their method could create a closed-loop recycling process for this type of plastic.
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