"The UNC Chemistry culture of respect among the faculty for one another is perhaps our greatest asset because we can work together for common goals that are good for all. This contributes to the great congenial, collaborative environment we provide for development of independent student scholars."
Dr. Royce Murray,
Kenan Professor of Chemistry
We conduct research in all areas of modern chemistry:
Almost every undergraduate chemistry major that has undertaken a research project has found it to be an exciting and rewarding experience. Undergraduate research can help you acquire a spirit of inquiry, initiative, independence, sound judgment, patience, persistence, alertness, and the ability to use the chemical literature. The Department strongly endorses undergraduate research as one of the potentially most rewarding aspects of your undergraduate experience.
The reasons are many. One certainly is that it affords an opportunity to make pioneering discoveries at the forefront of science, using instrumentation and techniques far more sophisticated than those usually encountered in standard laboratory courses. Moreover, concepts learned in lecture courses become alive as they are applied to real situations. For students considering graduate studies, it is a chance to work along side graduate students and postdoctoral associates and experience firsthand some aspects of graduate training. But perhaps even more important than any of these reasons is the maturity, which comes from facing the challenge of designing an experiment or new type of calculation from scratch. There are no laboratory manuals with "cookbook" procedures for doing original research! It is not surprising, then, that close to 100 students each year are involved in undergraduate research projects in chemistry.
MORE ABOUT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH