Life in Chemistry
As a PhD or MSc student in Chemistry you will have the opportunity to join international leaders in chemistry research. All students join one of our six research groups:
- Bioanalysis and Analytical Methods (BAM)
- Nanostructured Polymers and Biopolymers
- Reading Atmospheric Chemistry and Environmental Research (RACER)
- Structure and Properties
- Interfacial Chemistry
- Synthesis and Chemical Biology
Your supervisor will be a leading academic in his/her field who will provide help and guidance to develop your research topic. All students are also assigned an internal assessor who reads their written work and provides valuable feedback on the overall progress of the project. There are first-class facilities available for all aspects of our research and we have excellent links with industry and other research centres throughout the world.
You will be given training in all the research techniques needed to get you started and introduced to the relevant scientific literature for your project. In some cases, our students may spend time with colleagues in a collaborating laboratory in order to learn new techniques.
We encourage students to present their work at conferences and every year the department holds a research day at which postgraduate students make oral and poster presentations to academic staff and visitors from industry.
In addition to your research studies you will also have the opportunity to attend sessions on generic skills training on a variety of topics run by Joint Faculty Graduate Skills Development Programme (GSDP).
The department is particularly noted for its friendly and helpful atmosphere and we have students from many countries all over the world. You will have plenty of opportunities to meet and mix socially with your fellow students through our lively chemistry students' society and members of staff are always on hand to discuss your work and life at Reading with you.