About us
The Department of Chemistry has been an established seat of learning at Reading for more than a century, with the first Professor of Chemistry being appointed here in 1907. The Department now has 25 research-active staff, with >£7.5 M of current grants - mainly from UK Research Councils. Underpinning the Department's work is a newly established Chemical Analysis Facility, funded by a £4.5 M award from the University. This open-access facility serves the analytical needs of the University and features state-of-the-art instrumentation including four NMR spectrometers (700, 500 and 2 × 400 MHz), four mass spectrometers, IR, Raman, UV-Vis and fluorescence spectrometers, and IR and Raman microscopes. A comprehensive X-ray diffraction suite (dual-wavelength single-crystal diffractometer; 2 × powder diffractometers; small-angle X-ray scattering instrument) and new thermal analysis instrumentation (2 × DSC, 2 × TGA and ITC) have also been installed. Complementing this major advance in research capability, the Department's research and teaching laboratories have been comprehensively modernised in recent years as part of a £10 M strategic development of the core sciences at Reading.
Chemistry plays a central role in research on campus - staff in the Department have strong links, for example, with collaborators in Archaeology, Pharmacy, Mathematics, Food & Nutritional Sciences, Biological Sciences, and Meteorology. In addition to these collaborations within the University, staff in Chemistry have established research programs with many other groups in the UK, the EU and overseas (for example in Germany, Spain, Italy, the US and Australia). Industrial collaboration is also a major strength of the Department with research groups working in conjunction with multinational companies including AstraZeneca, AWE, Cytec, DuPont, GlaxoSmithKline, Henkel, Johnson Matthey, Pfizer, Syngenta, and Unilever. As well as long- standing links with these major companies, the Department has an award-winning research record for collaboration with small and medium enterprises (SME's) via the Knowledge Transfer Partnership scheme. Moreover, spin-out activity by staff in launching new commercial enterprises is going from strength to strength.
Research in Chemistry is organised via five main themes: Bioanalysis and Analytical Methods, Nanostructured Polymers and Biopolymers, Atmospheric and Environmental Chemistry, Inorganic Materials: Structure and Properties and Interfacial Chemistry. The Nanoscience and Materials Group was very recently awarded a prestigious EPSRC 'Platform' grant (> £1.1 M) to sustain and develop research on nanostructured polymeric materials for use in healthcare and energy. Key to our research is our postgraduate community - we have successful postgraduate research programmes at both PhD and MSc levels, where a combination of UK Research Council and industrial funding supports one of the largest postgraduate cohorts in the University.
We are extremely proud of the friendly and informal atmosphere in our Department - staff in Chemistry work hard alongside our undergraduate and postgraduate students to ensure that they maximise their academic potential. This approach was borne out by degree results in Chemistry in 2009, when over 50% of the students on MChem courses achieved first class results, and almost 30% were awarded upper seconds. Even more remarkably, all of the students on our 'MChem with Year in Industry' programme were awarded first class degrees this summer! On graduating, more than 35% of our students move on to postgraduate research work.
Teaching is focused on both 3-year BSc and 4-year MChem degrees, with specialised options including MChem in Medicinal Chemistry, MChem with a Year in Industry, and BSc in Chemistry with Forensic Analysis. Supporting our degree programmes are strong links with international companies representing all sectors of the chemical industry. We thus have excellent relationships with companies such as AstraZeneca, BP, Cytec, DuPont, GlaxoSmithKline, Henkel, Johnson Matthey, Pfizer, Proctor & Gamble, Syngenta, and Unilever. These organisations play a key role in providing placements for our year-in-industry students, in delivering undergraduate lecture-programmes on industrial chemistry, and in the sponsorship of prizes at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Additionally, we have long-established links with local schools and chemistry teachers which allow us to offer a BSc in Chemistry with Education - as part of this degree final year students who are considering a career in teaching are able to carry out projects in secondary schools and colleges.