Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry - Inorganic Chemistry

SUNY Stony Brook University

The Department of Chemistry, within the College of Arts and Sciences, offers courses of study leading to the degrees of Master of Arts in Teaching Chemistry, Master of Science, and Doctor of Philosophy. Students in the M.A.T. program must register through the School of Professional Development. A student in the Ph.D. program may choose dissertation research in any one of the diverse areas of chemistry represented by the interests of the program faculty, or may choose an interdisciplinary topic under the guidance of a faculty member in another program. Coordinated activities exist with several programs, and include optional concentrations in chemical physics and chemical biology. Inorganic chemistry, being concerned with the synthesis, structure, and dynamics of the compounds formed by the more than 100 natural and synthetic elements, covers an extremely vast research area. New compounds and new synthetic methods are among the goals of inorganic chemistry research. Such compounds range from materials important in technology to catalysts for industrial chemical processes, small molecules present in outer space, and metal complexes that serve as models for biological materials. The methodologies used in inorganic chemistry include a wide variety of spectroscopic techniques, kinetic methods, procedures for the elucidation of geometric and electronic structures, and theory. The breadth and depth of inorganic chemistry are well represented at Stony Brook, as seen by the following examples of current research: thermally and photochemically activated dynamic processes, in particular, electron transfer reactions synthetic and structural studies of active site analogs of metalloenzymes such as the zinc proteins that regulate gene transcription and the high-potential iron-sulfur proteins activation of small molecules by transition metal complexes and homogeneous catalysis chemistry of unsaturated carbon-metal bonds in mononuclear compounds and in extended molecular assemblies molecular orbital calculations and molecular mechanics methods applied to transition metal cluster compounds and related organometallic substances NMR studies of zeolites and supported catalysts.