The Professional Environment

Stony Brook’s Chemistry Department is a great place to learn and do research. The department has a strong tradition of collaboration and interdisciplinary effort. It also has the facilities necessary to conduct research at the cutting edge.

One indication of the strength of collaborative effort in the department is the number of cross-disciplinary research centers that are led by Chemistry faculty. These centers include the Institute for Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, the Northeastern Center for Chemical Energy Storage, and the Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology.

The Chemistry Department hosts weekly research seminars and colloquia with national and international speakers. Special annual seminars include the Bigeleisen Lecture and the Benjamin Franklin Lecture. In addition, weekly gatherings such as the Biological Chemistry Seminar and the Combined Organic Group Meeting provide opportunities for students and faculty to exchange ideas on current research efforts.

Members of our department also benefit from collaborations with researchers in other departments on campus and at nearby research institutions. Students in our graduate program work with researchers in departments as diverse as Geosciences, Pharmacology, Materials Science, Biochemistry, Physics and Astronomy, and the university’s Medical School.

Collaborations extend well beyond the borders of campus. Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), only 15 miles away, offers one-of-a-kind experimental capabilities, including the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS), NASA Space Radiation Lab (NSRL) and Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The recently completed Center for Functional Nanomaterials is a state of the art facility for the production and characterization of molecular materials. Seven members of our department faculty have joint appointments at BNL, and students from many more research groups have the opportunity to conduct experiments using BNL facilities.