Chemistry plays a central role in providing solutions at the molecular level for many challenging problems of energy, health, and environmental issues. Recently, nanoscience has provided instrumental tools in solving the above problems. In line with such trends, Ewha Womans University initiated the Department of Chemistry and Nanoscience in 2002 by merging the previous Chemistry disciplines inaugurated in 1952 with Nanoscience.
The department has been selected as a strategic program at Ewha since 2002 and has developed into an internationally distinguished program by providing state-of-the-art instruments and excellent education, as well as recruiting top ranked faculty members.
The scope of education in the undergraduate program encompasses not only courses in physical chemistry, organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, analytical chemistry, biochemistry, and polymer chemistry but also currently challenging chemical disciplines in nanomaterials, biomaterials, energy, and green chemistry. During the graduate program of MS and PhD, students have the opportunity to join one or two specific areas of research. Undergraduate junior and senior students as well as graduate students also have opportunities to join any of the above specific disciplines.
In particular, the graduate program of our Department of Chemistry and Nanoscience has been recognized to rank within the top 5 programs among all Chemistry Departments in Korea since 2003 in an evaluation by the Korean Research Foundation. We hosted external funding resources including Brain Korea 21, Science Research Center (SRC), one Creative Research Center, five National Research Laboratories, and many competitive research projects.
Currently, 27 faculties and 147 undergraduate students, 93 graduate students, 11 research professors, and 19 post doctoral fellows are members of this department. Many state-of-the-art instruments including transmission electron microscope (TEM), FE-scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), mass-spectrophotometer, NMR (500 MHz), fluorescence spectrophotometer, microcalorimeter, circular dichroism spectrophotometer, among others are available in our department.
Most graduate courses are offered in English and financial support is available for qualified students.