Research

The chemistry program is characterized by an interdisciplinary group of researchers with established collaborations within the department as well as within the CLAS, across colleges, and outside the University of Iowa. These interdisciplinary activities broaden the impact of the department’s research and teaching missions while establishing excellent educational opportunities for our students, who get first-hand experience working as part of a team to solve complex scientific problems. Examples include programs to:

  • discover new classes of drugs and novel biomedical devices to combat human diseases
  • create and characterize new materials on the basis of innovative chemical processes
  • understand the underlying chemical principles of our natural and human impacted environment. 

Participation in such interdisciplinary activities greatly enhances classroom teaching by introducing the principles of chemistry through meaningful and socially relevant examples.