Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry- Soft X Ray Spectroscopy

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. The National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory, located only 15 miles from Stony Brook, provides unique opportunities for frontier research in chemistry. The synchrotron and associated devices are unequaled sources of high-intensity X-ray and vacuum ultraviolet radiation. One area of current research uses soft X-rays, photons with energies of 100 to 1000 eV, to investigate the excitation and relaxation of core electrons in molecules. Because core electrons, e.g., the 1s electrons of carbon, are tightly bound to individual atoms, the excitation energy is essentially localized on a particular atom in the molecule. This localization has the potential for producing photochemistry with far greater atomic site specificity than can be achieved by excitation of valence electronics with visible and ultraviolet light.