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Welcome

The George Washington University, founded in 1821, is located in downtown Washington, DC, the center of the federal government and one of the leading cultural centers of the country. Located in Corcoran Hall, the Chemistry Department offers Ph.D. and M.S. programs in analytical, inorganic, organic and physical chemistry and materials science. Research fields include: combustion chemistry; environmental chemistry; analytical and molecular spectroscopy; catalysis; chemical instrumentation; electrochemistry; inorganic and organometallic synthesis; organic synthesis/natural products; structure and reactivity studies; surface, interface and materials science; trace analysis; polymer chemistry; theoretical chemistry; transition metal complexes; nanostructured materials; and forensic chemistry (in cooperation with the Department of Forensic Sciences). Collaborative research is also conducted with faculty from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

The department is relatively small with 11 Professors, and about 30 graduate students. Thus, there is significant interaction between students and their dissertation advisors. Research is supported by all of the standard instrumentation including atomic absorption, infrared, ultraviolet/visible, nuclear magnetic resonance, and inductively-coupled plasma emission spectrometers, gas and liquid chromatographs, and mass spectrometers, including an ICP-MS system. Specialized equipment includes ultra-high vacuum systems, Auger spectrometers, LED, a thin film deposition apparatus, scanning tunneling microscope, atomic force microscope, laser desorption time-of-flight mass spectrometer (MALDI-MS), and a well equipped laser spectroscopy laboratory suite. In addition, the majority of the faculty have cooperative research efforts with one or more of the well equipped local government laboratories. The department also maintains several workstations for computational research.

Student The department is relatively small with 11 Professors, and about 30 graduate students. The university has three major libraries with an excellent collection of monographs and all of the essential science and engineering journals. Additional library capacities are available through the local university consortium and the many government research institutions. The University has an excellent computer center. Prestigious government facilities of direct relevance to chemistry in the Washington metropolitan area include

Because of this unique scientific environment, educational opportunities are available in the Washington area which cannot be found elsewhere.