Much of our understanding of the material world is based on chemistry.  Chemistry is central to disciplines such as biotechnology, materials science, environmental science, medicine, pharmacology and physics. Chemistry is conventionally divided into inorganic, organic, physical and analytical chemistry. This breadth is reflected in our research.

The Department is one of the largest and liveliest departments in the University. About one third of the academic staff has been recruited in the past ten years and more than ten professors have been appointed since 1990. The new staff have brought expertise in important areas of teaching and current research in chemistry. This enabled us to provide a number of new research areas and to maintain a consistently high level of research funding and postgraduate student enrollment over many years. The Department consists of a large number of strong research groups covering a broad spectrum ranging from theoretical to materials chemistry.