School of Chemistry, UNSW

Assoc. Prof. Barbara Messerle, Head of School

The School of Chemistry at UNSW is one of the leading centres of research and teaching in Chemistry in Australia. We teach about 2000 undergraduate students each year, with research undertaken by approximately 80 Ph.D. students and 10 postdoctoral research workers. In 2006 we moved into a new state-of-the-art building, with outstanding research and teaching facilities. The school is now co-located with the UNSW Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre, which provides research facilities which are at the forefront internationally and allow us to continue our tradition of excellent research.

The school contributes to degree programs across several faculties at UNSW. Chemistry students in the Advanced Science programme enjoy special courses involving challenging chemistry, and the school coordinates, and is a major contributor to, the Nanotechnology degree program. Our recently established medicinal chemistry program allows students to study across the boundaries of chemistry and pharmacology. Our new undergraduate teaching laboratories are the most advanced teaching laboratories in Australia. We have an exciting Honours Research program, with 25 honours students in 2010 undertaking research across a wide range of areas.

We have close ties with the community and are continually developing new links with High Schools across the Sydney region. Groups of students from several High Schools have recently visited us to undertake experiments in our teaching and research laboratories and we welcome enquiries from all High Schools about joining this programme. High school teachers are invited to enquire about pursuing professional development or further education with us.

Our school has particularly strong links both nationally and internationally. The UNSW Chemical Society has a series of named lectureships which attract the best chemists from around the world to UNSW where they present lectures and interact with our staff and students. We house the NSW state branch of the Royal Australian Chemistry Institute (RACI), and our own Prof. David Black AO is the current Secretary-General of the International Council for Science (ICSU). We have a joint appointment (Dr John Stride) with ANSTO - the home of the new OPAL reactor. We also regularly welcome international visitors on both short- and long-term visits.

We have an outstanding group of graduate students, and we welcome applications from within Australia, as well as from overseas, for both our Honours and Postgraduate programs.

I look forward to seeing you in the School!

Professor Barbara Messerle,
Head of School.

Welcome to the School of Chemistry!