Overview
What are Chemical Sciences?
Chemistry is a creative and central science, dealing with challenges that span the physical and life sciences. It is found and used everywhere from the creation of new materials and processes through to advancements in medical health and diagnosis of disease.
A chemistry-based qualification provides students with the relevant skills and knowledge to open doors in research, medicine, education, industry, finance, consultancy and more.
As well as practical knowledge of the subject, chemistry students develop many other transferable skills that are valued by both employers and the wider community. These range from critical thinking and problem-solving to communication and creativity. Nobody knows what the jobs of the future will look like, but chemists will be needed to tackle problems in human health, sustainable energy, technology, food management and the environment. Academics at the School of Chemistry are at the forefront of cutting-edge research and are contributing to ground-breaking advances that benefit society. These include nanotechnology, drug-delivery, energy storage and computational modelling.
Structure of the TR061 Chemical Sciences programme
In the Chemical Sciences stream students will study the core concepts that are fundamental to all of chemistry including topics in physical, organic and inorganic chemistry. Students will receive a strong grounding in mathematics and will be able to expand their scientific knowledge and to pursue their individual interests by choosing from a cohort of approved and elective modules on topics such as physics, biology, and history and philosophy of science.
Subjects:
In first year of TR061 students take 40 credits of core modules: Chemistry (20 credits) and Maths (20 credits). Students select the remaining 20 credits from one of two patterns.
Pattern 1 – Biology (10 credits) and Foundation Physics (10 credits).
Or
Pattern 2 – Physics (20 credits).
At the end of Second year in TR061 students taking Pattern 1 can choose from a degree in Chemistry, Chemistry with Biosciences, Chemistry with Molecular Modelling.
Students taking Pattern 2 can choose from a degree in Chemistry, Chemistry with Molecular Modelling, Nanoscience.
Note: The open modules taken in 1st year will influence the open modules available in 2nd year.
In the third year, students specialise in one of the five subjects offered in this stream: Chemistry, Chemistry with Biosciences, Chemistry with Molecular Modelling, Medicinal Chemistry and Nanoscience (the physics and chemistry of advanced materials). A combination of student choice and class ranking is used to allocate places on each moderatorship. Small group teaching from academic experts who are actively researching in these subjects creates an exciting teaching and research-led environment where current state-of-the-art research is discussed together with fundamental concepts.
In their third year, students have the opportunity to take one or two modules in an area unrelated to their main course (Trinity Electives) to get a flavour of other disciplines.
In the fourth year students choose from a selection of modules on advanced topics within their discipline. Final-year students on all courses will also undertake a Capstone research project over the course of a semester in Trinity or in a research laboratory in another university, research institute or with an industry partner, either in Ireland or abroad.
For further information on modules/subjects, click here.
