Letter From the Chair

Welcome to the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at Florida State University, home of the ChemiNoles. The department has a long history in excellence and is ranked in the top BS- and PhD-granting programs in the USA. Whether you know us for the patenting of paclitaxel, a highly effective breast cancer chemo-agent, advances in the structure of biological molecules using cryo-electron microscopy and NMR spectroscopy, our development of mass spectroscopy methods, our energy related research, or our developments in physical and materials chemistry, the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry has strong research legacy and a nationally and internationally award winning faculty. Our faculty not only teach STEM leaders of tomorrow; we train entrepreneurial scientists that lead the discoveries that are changing our lives today. Be sure to look at our state of the art facilities and the web pages of our world leading scholars.

If you are interested in majoring in chemistry or biochemistry, let me offer you some important facts about our Department. Our majors develop deep knowledge and the skills needed to succeed in today’s workplace. You will find ChemiNole leaders in industry, academia, at national laboratories, and as entrepreneurs. We are the leading educational institution, with an undergraduate 4-year graduation rate of 73% and a 90% retention rate. For graduate students in chemistry, the average time to a Ph.D. is 5.2 years and they have a 95% employment rate upon exiting the program.

Become part of the ChemiNoles by joining our department as a student, a post-doctoral associate, a faculty member, or a donor to the cutting edge science being developed in Tallahassee, Florida. If you are one of FSU graduates, I would be happy to hear from you or better yet, come visit.

Wei Yang (yang@sb.fsu.edu)
Chair, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry