Welcome to the Chemistry Department
As the Chair of the Chemistry Department in the College of Arts and Sciences at University of North Florida, I would like to welcome you to our site. I am delighted that you are browsing our web pages and exploring UNF's Chemistry Department, a thriving academic department with ambitious plans for growth.
The Chemistry Department currently has 17 faculty members, 1 part-time adjunct lecturer, and 4 administrative staff (a full-time analytical facility instrumentation manager, a laboratory manager, a laboratory technician, and an office manager). We are in the process of adding a tenure-track faculty member in biochemistry to begin August 2012. Our faculty members place a high priority on excellence in teaching.
We offer a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Chemistry through a four-year program of study, which is fully accredited through the American Chemical Society (ACS). In the Fall semester 2011, 1,877 students were enrolled in chemistry classes and 134 were upper level chemistry majors. Students take courses relating to organic, inorganic, analytical, physical and biochemistry areas. The upper level classes, typically with fewer than twenty students, are small enough to enable students to interact closely with the faculty. We began offering two new tracks for the BS degree about a year ago, Pre-Medical Professions and Materials Chemistry tracks, to gratifying response. By Fall 2011, 28 students had declared for one or the other concentration.
Our program is designed to give students a diverse, yet deep, understanding of chemical phenomena. Most courses include substantial laboratory work in order to give students first-hand experience and an opportunity to learn the experimental skills used by practicing chemists. Students interpret and explain experimental data from a broad array of instrumentation, including high-field NMR (500 MHz), FAAS/GFAAS, GC-MS, GC, FT-IR, UV/Vis, HPLC, and X-ray powder diffraction and a variety of other research-caliber instruments. Numerous undergraduate research opportunities with the faculty are available; juniors and seniors are strongly encouraged to gain undergraduate research experience. Our graduates find employment in industry or go on to graduate programs, medical, or veterinary schools.
I hope you will be able to find the information that you are looking for by browsing through our website. Should you require additional information on the chemistry program at UNF please feel free to contact me (Kenneth.Laali@unf.edu) or the chemistry main office at (904) 620-3504.
Dr. Kenneth Laali
Professor & Chair, Department of Chemistry
