Message from the Chair

Welcome to the Rice University Department of Chemistry! The department encompasses those at Rice who investigate the composition, properties, structure and reactivity of matter. Among us are theorists and experimentalists, organic chemists and inorganic chemists, physical chemists and biological chemists, scientists and engineers.  Rice is a terrific place to do research in chemistry. The department has developed two Nobel laureates and many members of the National Academy of Sciences; and hosts one of only six National Science Foundation funded centers for nanoscale science and engineering.

For decades, the Rice culture has promoted interdisciplinary research. Most Rice chemistry professors have additional appointments elsewhere, including four of the five science departments and four of the eight engineering departments on campus. We have particularly strong programs in nanoscale science, theoretical chemistry, inorganic materials, experimental physical chemistry, biological chemistry, supramolecular chemistry and environmental chemistry.  Rice University is a member of the Texas Medical Center, and the Chemistry department is at the center of important breakthroughs in nanomedicine. 

Our graduate program is sharply focused on promoting the highest level of achievement for each Rice doctoral student. The program is highly selective, admitting only about 20 graduate students a year.  These small numbers ensure that Rice graduate students have unusual access to faculty time, instrumentation and other resources. As a consequence, chemistry graduate students at Rice develop unusually strong publication records. To ensure that financial constraints are not an obstacle, we waive the application fee for domestic students, and provide a generous stipend and full-tuition waivers for those students who enter our doctoral program.

Rice undergraduate chemists are also among the best in the nation. The > 1:1 ratio of chemistry faculty members to majors at Rice gives our undergraduates unusually close working relationships with their professors.  All Rice chemistry majors participate in undergraduate research and commonly join a lab during their first year.  They are as a result positioned to take real intellectual control of their research, and many coauthor publications that describe their findings. 

I hope that you find our pages to be interesting. Please do not hesitate to contact me or my colleagues to learn more about our work and our department.   

Seiichi Matsuda
Department Chair, E. Dell Butcher Professor
and Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology