Welcome to the Rice University Chemistry Department! Located in Houston, the 4th largest and the most diverse city in the United States, the Department of Chemistry is an engine for discovery and innovation in the state of Texas and beyond. From fundamental research involving synthetic organic chemistry, chemical biology, theory, computation, plasmonic, spectroscopy, nanomaterials, and many more, to translational and applied research including advanced materials for aerospace applications, nanostructured membranes for water purification, metal nanoparticles for cancer treatment, and biomaterials for spinal cord regeneration. The Rice Chemistry Department connects many of the physical sciences and technical majors across the university, promoting an extremely collaborative environment that reaches beyond Rice Campus to a variety of institutions, including the Texas Medical Center (the largest medical center in the world), Houston Energy and Manufacturing Industry (particularly oil and gas), and the broader research community.
Our History
Historically, chemistry has been taught at Rice since its opening in 1912. The first chemistry building opened in 1925 (originally named the Chemistry Building, but now known as Keck Hall). Today, the Chemistry Department is represented in 6 buildings across campus (Space Science and Technology Building, Dell Butcher Hall, George R. Brown Building, Anderson Biological Laboratories, Bioscience Research Collaborative, and Ralph S. O’Connor Building), with the Chemistry Department office currently located in the recently renovated Space Science and Technology Building. The contributions of the Chemistry Department to the fundamental and applied sciences are broad, with important discoveries in all areas of chemistry. A pivotal moment for the Department was the discovery of the Buckminsterfullerene in 1986 by the research groups of Smalley, Curl, and Kroto (Smalley and Curl were Rice Professors), denoting the onset of the golden era of nanotechnology. In 1995, Science named Buckminsterfullerene the molecule of the year, and in 1996, Smalley, Curl, and Kroto were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery. Since then, the Rice Chemistry Department has been one of the world leaders in Nanoscale Materials Research.
Our
People
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The Chemistry Department community is composed of students, faculty, and staff of different nationalities, races, and ethnicities. We respect, encourage, and celebrate this diversity and welcome a respectful and inclusive exchange of ideas, points of view, and opinions. We are committed to removing barriers that prevent equitable access to scientific and educational resources for all our members. Currently, the Department of Chemistry consists of about twenty faculty members with main appointments in Chemistry and more than twenty additional faculty members from other departments that bear joint appointments in Chemistry. Our faculty is well-recognized for their contributions to chemistry with 2 Nobel Laureates, 4 Members of the National Academy of Sciences, 1 Member of the National Academy of Engineering, 1 Wolf Prize awardee, and recipients of many national and international awards from a constellation of scientific organizations. Core faculty research expenditure amounts to over $12 million per year, averaged over each of the past five years. This funding supports over 120 graduate students and 40 postdoctoral associates. The department graduates an average of 20 Ph.D. students each year. Graduate students have been authors on 1,094 publications in the past five years, including 322 first-author publications. This represents an average of over 10 published papers per graduate student. In addition, over 60 chemistry majors are studying in the department (freshmen are not considered in this count), with about 24 students per year graduating with bachelor’s degrees in Chemistry. Rice Chemistry's graduate program is ranked #22 by US News & World Report.
Our Facilities
The research infrastructure of the department is fantastic, with state-of-the-art instrumentation and support through the Shared Equipment Authority (SEA). SEA is an institutional office that hosts, supports, and maintains more than 100 instruments across campus. Instruments such as X-Ray Diffractometers, Mass Spectrometers, Microscopes (such as SEM, TEM, STEM, and AFM), and many others are under the umbrella of SEA. Important capabilities such as a Cleanroom, Animal Facilities, and the Electron Microscopy Center enhance the research enterprise of our faculty. Our faculty is also associated with a variety of Institutes and Centers, such as the Smalley-Curl Institute (SCI), Rice Advanced Materials Institute (RAMI), Rice Sustainability Institute, and the Brain Institute, as well as the Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP), the Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT) Center, Rice Center for Quantum Materials (RCQM), the Carbon Hub, the Center for Nanoscale Imaging, and the SynthesisX (SynthX) Center. In addition, while chemistry stockrooms are rare these days, the Rice Chemistry Department has a fully supplied stockroom that offers laboratory supplies, chemicals, and equipment to our faculty and students.
Warmest regards,
Angel Martí, Ph.D
Department Chair
