chemistry and biochemistry

Chemistry and Biochemistry

Majors and Minors in Chemistry and Biochemistry

Our innovative curriculum provides a solid foundation of chemical understanding while allowing students the flexibility to study in greater depth those areas of chemistry most interesting to them.  Our students gain not only chemical knowledge, but also develop excellent problem solving skills.  Their education in chemistry, together with DePauw’s emphasis on the liberal arts, prepares them well for a variety of opportunities including graduate school in chemistry, biochemistry, and related science disciplines such as environmental science, pharmacology, materials science, medicine, and law (corporate, patent, or environmental, for example). Students are also ready for careers in chemically-related industries, such as sales, drug development, instrumentation, biotechnology, cosmetics, and agrochemicals.

• metabolomic studies of medicinal plants
• trace metal geochemistry
• using non-traditional solvents like ionic liquids to synthesize new metal-organic frameworks
• developing methods for the stereoselective synthesis of epoxides for use in pharmaceuticals
• understanding structure/function relationships of proteins important in metal detoxification processes in archaea
• building the tools to study interactions during the encapsidation of ebolavirus
• designing and characterizing proteins to fascilitate prediction of tertiary structure
• and spectroscopic investigations of reverse micelles using both time resolved and time averaged techniques.