Truman Chemistry Fact Sheet

Students

• Between 45-50% of our students are female.

• Chemistry has 180 majors, graduating approximately 20-30 each year.

• There are opportunities for students to participate in research.

• Students regularly present the results of research investigations at scientific meetings.

• Student clubs include American Chemical Society Student Affiliate, Alpha Chi Sigma, professional fraternity, and American Medical Students Association (AMSA).

Faculty

  Statistics (for fall 2008 and spring 2009):

• 19 full time faculty

• All of the full-time faculty hold a terminal degree (Ph.D.)

• 4/19 (21%) of the faculty are female

    Our faculty are diverse:

• They were born and raised in several different states and countries.

• They have attended a diversity of public and private undergraduate institutions.

• Their Ph.D.’s were received from research institutions throughout the U.S.

Curriculum

Chemistry offers only an ACS certified degree and an Honors degree is also available. Beginning in the fall of 2004, a major curriculum change occurs for the incoming freshmen class.  Principles of Chemistry I and II change from being four-hour courses to five-hour courses.  The second course will cover more material regarding inorganic chemistry.   New inquiry based experiments are being incorporated into Principles of Chemistry I and II.  These activities will provide students hands-on experience in collecting and analyzing research data.

Chemistry has established the Chemistry Contact Center (C³).  This space is where Chemistry faculty will be available over thirty hours a week to answer questions regarding introductory courses.   Our largest lectures for Science majors have 72 students.  Many classes have only 20-50 students.  Some are as small as 10-20 students.  All lab sections are restricted to 24 or fewer students.

Facilities and Equipment

• We have excellent modern atomic absorption, GCMS, FTIR, and HPLC instruments.

• We have many microcomputers (both Macs and IBMs) in teaching and research labs.

• Eight new teaching laboratories have opened as a result of the completion of the Magruder Hall project. These laboratories serve students in all areas of chemistry, including introductory courses and courses in organic, inorganic, physical, analytical and biochemistry. 

• Our teaching labs are equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation that students use regularly.

• Our 400MHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) instrument can perform numerous state-of-the-art experiments.

Alumni

• Over the past five years, about 55-65% of our graduates attend graduate school, about 25% attend medical, dental, or pharmacy school, and the remainder (10-20%) enter the job force.
• Listed below are some of the graduate, medical, and law schools that have accepted our graduates in the past five years:

  Washington University (St. Louis) University of Iowa University of Nebraska University of Northern Colorado Northern Illinois University University of California-Berkeley University of Wisconsin-Madison Purdue University California Institute of Technology University of Miami-Ohio University of California-San Diego University of Illinois School of Law University of Montana Ohio State University University of Missouri-Columbia

  Southern Illinois University University of Kansas Iowa State University University of Missouri-Columbia Medical School Penn State University University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign University of Colorado Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Northwestern University Baylor University School of Law Medical College of Wisconsin University of Wyoming University of Chicago Cornell University

• Listed below are some of the pharmacy schools that have accepted our graduates in the past five years:
  • University of Missouri-Kansas City
  • University of Kansas
  • Creighton University
  • University of Iowa
• Listed below are some of the industrial companies that have hired our recent graduates:

  Sigma Aldrich Chemical Corporation Pfizer Monsanto Aventis Ecolab Inc Pharmacia Upjohn Co. BASF Searle Midwest Research Institute (MRI)

  Mallinckrodt Chemical Company Teva Company Tnemec Corp. Inc. Continental Cement Co. Solutia Quintiles Co. Illinois State Crime Lab Eli Lilly