School of Chemistry
- Head of School:Professor David Grayson
- Director of Teaching & Learning (Postgraduate):Professor Isabel Rozas
- Telephone:+353-1-896 1423
- Fax:+353-1-671 2826
- Email:chemdept@tcd.ie
- Url:www.tcd.ie/Chemistry
- How to apply:Please contact the School of Chemistry or the Director of Postgraduate Teaching and Learning
School Description:
The School of Chemistry is a vibrant community of 25 academic staff members, 20 postdoctoral researchers and over 100 postgraduate research students that generates an annual research income in excess of €5 million. These funds are attracted by research across the School’s three core disciplines; Inorganic and Synthetic Materials Chemistry, Organic, Medicinal and Biological Chemistry and Physical, Computational and Materials Chemistry.
Exciting research topics currently under investigation in the School are the synthesis and characterisation of novel inorganic materials including nanomaterials and supramolecular systems, drug design, development of new synthetic methods, biomimetic catalysis, photochemistry, photomedicine, electrochemistry, surface science and the development and application of predictive computational modelling. This diverse research is strengthened and supported by the School’s strong links with a number of Institutes of excellence. These include the Centre for Chemical Synthesis and Chemical Biology (CSCB), the Institute for Information Technology and Advanced Computation (IITAC), the Dublin Molecular Medicine Centre (DMMC), Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN) and the Biosciences development.
All of these activities are facilitated by excellent research equipment housed in the School, which include two CCD single crystal diffractometers, a circular dichroism spectrometer with linear dichroism accessory, three high-resolution electrospray mass spectrometer and four high-field NMR spectrometers (300, two 400 (one with multinuclear probe), and one 600 MHz) as well as specialised equipment for the study of photophysical, electrochemical and nanoscale systems. Computational capabilities include access to a 760 node cluster in the Trinity Centre for High Performance Computing (TCHPC).
The School offers both Ph.D. and M.Sc. degrees by research. Typically, a M.Sc. takes between one and two years with a Ph.D. degree taking between three and four years to complete. In addition to conducting research, students attend a number of specialist courses, weekly research seminars and also participate in safety and other technical courses.
Research students obtain funding from a number of sources. These include national programmes (e.g. SFI and IRCSET), College scholarships and direct funding from individual supervisors. Up to date information is available on the School of Chemistry website.
In 2007 the School of Chemistry of Trinity College and the School of Chemistry and Chemical Biology of University College Dublin launched a joint programme of graduate lecture courses. This is one aspect of the close interaction of the two leading Irish Chemistry research schools within the Dublin Chemistry initiative. Students are expected to take several courses during their Ph.D. programme to account for the number of credits required for their degrees. More details can be found on the School website.
In a future of increasingly interdisciplinary research the School of Chemistry enjoys strong collaborations with colleagues in the physical, technological and biological sciences throughout the College, and at national and international levels. Through these initiatives the School of Chemistry continues to grow as a natural strategic centre and enables structure for projects at the interface between Chemistry and Life Sciences and Chemistry and the Materials/Nanosciences.