| Welcome to Sonoma State
University Department of Chemistry! We are an undergraduate department in which students and faculty work closely together in the classroom and on research projects. We are particularly proud of the strong relationships we develop with our majors. This strong relationship starts on the first day when you become a Chemistry major: A personal faculty advisor will be assigned to you to help you plan for your entire study in Chemistry at SSU and your future careers. Furthermore, all of the department's resources, from the most advanced equipment to one-on-one faculty time are available to you. We are committed to help you succeed. Our Department has recently undergone several exciting changes including setting up new labs in a new building. We are always updating our courses to meet the growing needs for chemists in both industry and academia, one of which is the recently established B.S. degree in Biochemistry. In only one year, the Biochemistry degree has attracted a great number of students and the number continues to grow. Also, beginning this fall, we are offering a new Honors Analytical General Chemistry course sequence to the incoming freshman class, integrating both General Chemistry and Quantitative Analysis (a sophomore level course). This course sequence will allow fast-tracking into upper division chemistry courses, which will benefit the students who have had a better Chemistry background. In addition, if you have any special interests in a Chemistry related study, please let us know and we will be glad to work with you. Our course offerings are strongly enhanced by the availability of many research grade instruments, including High Performance Liquid Chromatographs (HPLC) and a GC-Mass Spectrometer. We also have a variety of spectrometers including multiple UV/VIS spectrometers, a fluorimeter, an infrared spectrometer, and a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer. In addition, The William Keck Microanalysis Laboratory is equipped with a scanning electron microscope (SEM), atomic force microscopes (AFM), Auger electron spectrometer (AES) and confocal fluorescence microscope. All of these facilities are used by our students who are actively involved in working on exciting and novel problems in chemistry and biochemistry. Our students frequently attend conferences to present their latest results. Many of our students have won competitive research awards to support their work. The faculty also has funding for research that provides stipends for students to continue work in the summer. Our graduates have pursued a variety of different career goals ranging from attending graduate, professional, or medical schools to directly entering into industry. A growing proportion of our students are also pursuing careers in forensics and environmental science. Our students have done exceedingly well in gaining admission and winning fellowships and assistantships at a number of graduate schools. Those who have joined local industry are working on projects including drug development and purification, quality control in industrial processes, and instrumentation design. With the Pacific Coast to the West and the Sierra Nevada mountains to the East, Sonoma County is not only a beautiful place to live, providing an overwhelming number of year-round recreational activities; it has become a center for high tech industry in the areas of biotechnology and enology. Several local companies employ a number of our graduates or provide summer or academic year internships for our students. This partnership often leads to professional positions upon graduation. We look forward to hearing from you. Meng-Chih Su Chair, Department of Chemistry |