Student Experience
Hands-on learning, cutting-edge research and a welcoming scientific community – discover what makes the Department of Chemistry at UofL exceptional.
Chemistry Student Life
Days in the chemistry department move between the lecture hall and the lab. You’ll learn the theory, then test it at the bench, in a place that pushes you hard and backs you up. Your classmates come from across Kentucky and around the world, which somehow makes the department feel both close-knit and wide open. Outside class, students dig into research, land internships and build the kind of faculty relationships that turn into recommendation letters and job leads years later. There’s room to have fun with it, too: the undergraduate chemistry club makes liquid nitrogen ice cream every year, and graduate students run the Derby Lecture Series, which brings a Nobel laureate to campus each spring.
Beyond the Classroom
Chemistry at UofL happens outside the lab, too.
- Society for Undergraduate Chemistry Students (SUCS) – Open to any major, SUCS keeps the department social, runs events all year and pairs newer students with ones who’ve already been through the courses they’re facing.
- Undergraduate research – Work beside field-leading faculty on real projects, sometimes as early as your first year, through courses like CHEM 390WR, 391, 392, 491 and 492.
- Paid co-ops and internships – Recent students have earned a paycheck and real experience at Michelin, Clariant, Allnex, Zeochem, Biosynth, Brown-Forman, Michter’s Distillery and DDW (now Givaudan).
- PRIMES teaching assistantships – Through the Partnership for Retention Improvement in Math, Engineering and Science (PRIMES), strong majors teach in labs and recitations, and more than 90% sign up to do it again.
Academic Opportunities
Research Opportunities
Research is where chemistry stops being a textbook and starts being yours. Undergraduates and graduate students both get real lab time here, and it changes how you see the science and what you picture doing with it. A sample of where our faculty work:
- Energy and catalysis – Labs led by faculty including Basemann, Buchanan, Grapperhaus, Ramezanipour, Thompson and Wilson chase cleaner hydrogen, carbon dioxide capture, earth-abundant catalysts and better solar and storage materials, often with the Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research.
- Materials and analytical chemistry – Researchers build materials for batteries and fuel cells and use mass spectrometry to read the structure of molecules and biopolymers (Ramezanipour, Valentine, Wilson).
- Synthesis, biochemistry and medicine – The Luzzio and Grapperhaus groups design new molecules and metal-based therapies aimed at problems from cancer to infection.
- Molecular recognition and machine learning – The Howard Lab uses data science to predict how molecules find each other, then designs sensors for pollutants and biological targets.
- Chemistry education – The Balabanoff group studies how students actually learn chemistry and builds tools that help them stick with it.
Internship Opportunities
An internship turns what you know into what you can do, and it’s often the line on a resume that earns the first interview. Our students have spent semesters in paid co-ops and internships with Michelin, Clariant, Allnex, Zeochem, Biosynth, Brown-Forman, Michter’s Distillery and DDW (now Givaudan), working real problems next to professional chemists. Openings change every semester, so check in early with the director of undergraduate studies and keep an eye on Cardinal Careers, where every current posting lives.
Support Services
Harness the Power of Molecular Science
Ready to turn your passion for molecular science into professional impact? Join the UofL Department of Chemistry and build the analytical foundation that industry, medicine and research demand.