10/23/2008
sdunner@princeton.edu

Research is the core of the graduate program, and the many research groups, each under the direction of a faculty member, are the basic educational and scholarly units of the department. An entering graduate student's most important task is to choose a research group appropriate to his or her talents and interests.

Princeton's chemistry department has a tradition of excellence in experimental and theoretical physical chemistry, chemical physics, and several fields of organic chemistry. Recent additions to the faculty have strengthened the areas of synthetic organic, inorganic, bioorganic, and solid-state chemistry. Contemporary research areas include surface reaction kinetics, molecular reaction dynamics, electrochemistry, surface modification chemistry, electronic structure, and energy transfer in crystals. A number of programs are centered in the rapidly expanding areas between organic and inorganic chemistry, including organometallic reaction mechanisms and solid-state and organometallic chemistry.

Exploration of synthetic organic chemistry continues to be an important theme in modern chemistry, and Princeton is well represented in this area with numerous projects in organocatalysis, natural product and pharmaceutical synthesis, enantioselective synthesis, organometallic synthetic methods, and bioinspired strategies for synthesis.

Theoretical investigations range broadly: time-dependent relaxation processes, atomic and molecular collisions, optimal control theory, paramagnetic and charge transfer excitations, development of new electronic structure methods with application to inorganic and organic molecules, and several aspects of solid-state chemistry. Solid-state chemistry includes also the study of the structure, stability, and bonding in complex oxides and silicates, and the synthesis and properties of intercalation complexes. Biochemistry is represented in the department by research on the role of metals in biology, on the folding of proteins, on models of photosynthesis, on biomimetic approaches to peptide synthesis, on DNA-ligand interactions, and studies of enzyme mechanisms and inhibitor design.

A great variety of research instrumentation is available, both in the departmental instrument facility and in individual faculty members' laboratories. This instrumentation includes NMR, ESR, mass spectrometry (high-resolution and gas chromatograph integrated), and visible, ultraviolet, and infrared spectrometers. High-resolution visible, ultraviolet, and FT-IR spectrometers are available. There is research equipment for ultrahigh vacuum surface studies, including electron diffraction and electron spectroscopy equipment. Tunable and fixed wavelength laser sources, gas and liquid chromatographic equipment, X-ray diffraction facilities, and controlled atmosphere dry boxes also are available to students.

New instruments are constantly being added to the departmental instrument facility. Recent acquisitions include three 500 MHz NMR’s with cryoprobes and autosamplers; a high resolution ESI-TOF mass spectrometer, an LC interfaced Q-TOF mass spectrometer for proteomics studies, and a fast LC-triple quadrupole mass spectrometer; a suite of bench-top FT-IR spectrometers for routine analysis; and a 35 GHz superconducting EPR spectrometer.

The department has the services of a full-time glassblower, a machine shop, and a shared instrumentation facility staff of four. Significant computational resources are available for theoretical studies and experimental data processing. Interactive terminals are available for program development and graphics applications. Smaller computers are used for real time control and data manipulation within individual faculty research programs.

Opportunities for interaction between the chemistry department and national and industrial laboratories in the Princeton area abound. Several faculty members in the department use the facilities of Brookhaven National Laboratory, and collaborative efforts with researchers at the SRI David Sarnoff Research Center, Bristol-Meyers Squibb Research Center, Merck, Siemens Medical Systems, Wyeth Research, and Exxon Mobil Research and Engineering add to the research experience of many graduate students at Princeton.