Project Editor: Susannah Hall, UCARE, 2008

UNL Chemistry - MOVING FORWARD

This year, as the Chemistry Department at the University of Nebraska celebrates its 125th anniversary, the department is doing well. The PLU and ACS chapters continue to guide students through the sometimes harrowing courses that lead to degrees. The students studying chemistry change from year to year, although there are about 100 undergraduates (almost double enrollment from 2000, when there were only 55), and 120 graduate students, whose numbers have also increased some in the past few years. There are 24 or 25 faculty members, although some emeriti still teach to supplement the areas where more and more professors are retiring; as in other parts of the academic world, the baby boomers are a significant part of the staff. Faculty average 60 hours per week, devoting 55% to research, 35% to teaching, and 10% to service on committees.

Modern chemists research more than in the past, and often collaborate within the department or with other chemists around the world. There is also more focus on patents before published research, for legal protection of researchers' work. Biochemistry, both in the Biochemistry Department and the Chemistry Department, has become a significant part of medicinal research. Other important areas include nano materials, hydrogen reactions, and batteries, although this author does not presume to understand the work of UNL's talented chemists. Research is an important factor for faculty, as well as graduate and undergraduate students.

The chemistry sector is lucrative right now, just as it was during World War I and World War II. Entrance into graduate programs is more competitive, however; federal funding for the National Science Foundation has decreased significantly in the past half-decade. The costs of teaching chemistry have increased while funding for the sciences has decreased. It is especially difficult for academic chemists. Although there are many students who graduate with degrees in chemistry, there is often more pressure for students who earn Bachelor of Science or graduate degrees to enter industry, where income is almost always higher. The path to graduation is difficult: labs and lectures are expected to encompass far more than they did 100 years ago, and current lab courses include 3 to 4 hours in lab, plus additional work outside, for each credit hour awarded. The competition among chemistry students can be fierce as they fight for the best graduate programs, wielding brilliant GRE scores, lists of research projects and publications, and GPAs more commonly seen from humanities programs.

The University of Nebraska, Lincoln, has a chemistry department with a remarkable history, and an exciting future. It will be essential that the University and the world watch developments in the sciences over the next few decades, for they have had, and always will have, an important influence on the evolution of civilization.