Department Chair: Dr. James K. Baird
Location: 203C Materials Science Building - #19 on campus map
Telephone: (256) 824-6153
FAX: (256) 824-6349
E-mail: chemistry.grad@uah.edu | Homepage

The Program

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The Department of Chemistry Master's graduate program is strongly coupled with the master's and doctoral programs in Materials Science. Approximately 35 graduate students are currently enrolled in these programs with four to six students graduating each year from the M.S. program in Chemistry. Over twenty faculty bring in three to five million dollars in external grants and contracts yearly with much of that spent in support of graduate students.

Our facilities are housed in the recently constructed Materials Science Building. Our research thrust areas are in surface science and biotechnology. Some of our graduate students work in collaboration with scientists at the nearby Redstone Arsenal U.S. Army base or Marshall Space Flight Center. Others work in collaboration with local companies that include Shearwater Polymers, Research Genetics, and other high tech companies located in Cummings Research Park, which is the largest in the Southeast outside of North Carolina's Research Triangle.

In the M.S. program most students elect to complete 24 hours of course work and write a Master's thesis. Others elect to complete 33 hours of course work and pass a comprehensive examination. Students seeking an M.S. in Chemistry and a Class A Secondary Teaching Certificate do the latter. The average time to graduate with an M.S. degree is two years.

Our graduates are in demand in both the academic and industrial workplaces. The success of our graduates has endowed our faculty with a reputation of graduating students that are competent, creative and independent.

Admission Requirements

Our admissions standards follow those of the graduate school - a score of at least 1500 on the GRE examination, plus an undergraduate Grade Point Average (GPA) of B or better, is required for unconditional admission. Students with lower GRE scores or lower GPAs may still be admitted conditionally, with approval of the Chair and the Graduate Dean. Newly admitted students typically hold Graduate Teaching Assistantships, which carry very competitive stipends and tuition remission for a full graduate course load, and involve duties ranging from teaching undergraduate laboratories to development of new course materials/demonstrations. By the second year of graduate study, most students transfer to Graduate Research Assistantships, which can carry higher stipends and involve work leading to the M.S. thesis in Chemistry.