Chemistry Department

Bowling Green's proud tradition of excellence in chemistry begins with a dedicated faculty providing a wide range of courses, including sequences in biochemistry, analytical, organic, physical, inorganic chemistry, and opportunities in materials science. Courses are supported with excellent laboratory facilities and state of the art instrumentation. Chemistry has been central to the development of an interdisciplinary program in materials science and is an important part of BGSU's program in scientific computing.

Along with a B.S. in Chemistry, the Department also offers a M.S. degree in Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Photochemical Sciences. The Center for Photochemical Sciences and the Department of Chemistry have developed a uniquely focused Ph.D. program in the photochemical sciences, designed for students with backgrounds in physics, biological sciences or chemistry. The coursework prepares students in the area of photochemistry and photophysics, and examines applications in fundamental areas of chemistry, materials science, biological sciences, physics, and spectroscopy and/or photopolymer science.

Graduates of the Bowling Green chemistry program are sought after by graduate schools, medical and dental schools, by the chemical industry, and in many allied research entities around the United States. The University has had a long-standing commitment to public education in the State of Ohio, and many of the finest chemistry teachers in the State are counted among Bowling Green's nearly 100,000 living alumni. Graduate students and post-doctoral research associates come to the university from many states and a number of foreign countries to study in specific research programs directed by Bowling Green's chemistry professors.

News

2024

Dr. Furgal's research on silicone recycling draws international interest

2021

April 2021

Nai-hsuan Hu (Furgal Lab) has won the graduate colleges Shanklin Award for Research Excellence in Math and Science based on his recent paper in Advanced Functional Materials on photoresponsive sponges ($1250 prize)

Kalani Edirisinghe (Ostrowski Lab) won the Outstanding Research Assistant Award

Buddhima Rupasinghe (Furgal Lab) will be presenting in the ACS Presidential symposium, Excellence in Graduate Polymer Research this Thursday (4/15/21) at 5:40 PM on his recent publication in ACS Applied Polymer Materials. “Full circle recycling of polysiloxanes via room temperature fluoride catalyzed depolymerization to repolymerizable cyclics.

BGSU Goldwater Fellow, Quinn Eberhard prepares for bioinformatics career

2020

October 29, 2020

Dr. Joseph Furgal's lab leads 'monumental' research

April 30, 2020

Junior Quinn Eberhard earns prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship  

April 29, 2020

Chemistry Associate Professor Tan receives NSF grant for coronavirus research

March 30, 2020

BGSU researchers Robert Midden and Alexis Ostrowski propose hydrogels to fight bloom

Quinn Eberhard majoring in chemistry (biochemistry concentration), 2019/2020 Hoskins Global Scholar

2019

October 10, 2019

Fall 2019 PhD Program Visit Day is Saturday November 23rd!

September 1, 2019

The Department welcomes new faculty member Dr. Xiaohong Tan

August 29,2019

During the Summer of 2019 the Dr. Robert and
Carol Taller Doctoral Fellowship was established. The department would like to recognize Sepideh Farshbaf as the initial recipient of this award.  

August 23, 2019

Photochemical Sciences graduate students Sapna Ahuja and Susovan Chowdhury receives the 2019 McMaster Graduate research Fellowship

July 28, 2019

Professor Jayaraman Sivaguru's groundbreaking research shines light on impact of Center for Photochemical Sciences

Archive

October 5, 2016

2012 W. Heinlen Hall LecturerJean-Pierre Sauvageawarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on molecular machines

April 6, 2016
Grad student Liubov Lifshits awarded University Teaching award

April 4, 2016
Grad student Giuseppe Giammanco to pitch idea at The Hatch entrepreneurship competition

January 27, 2016
BGSU partners to build diversity in faculty ranks from graduate level up

December 8, 2015

Alumnus, faculty scholar connect to answer biochemical questions

September 15, 2015
BGSU to host 2015 Ohio Inorganic Weekend

May 14, 2015
Malcolm D. E. Forbes to lead Center for Photochemical Sciences

May 9, 2015
Dr. Stephania Messersmith is promoted to Senior Lecturer.

Professor Art Brecher is awarded Emeritus status.

March 20, 2015
Graduate student Mary Bauman receives the university's 2014-2015 Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award

March 19, 2015
Department announces new Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Applications Due April 3rd

March 2, 2015
BGSU faculty Torelli and Erickson and grad student Bauman implement Undergraduate Research project in Biochemistry Lab course

February 16, 2015
Abstracts are now being accepted for the Ohio Photochemical Society (OoPS) meeting in May 2015

January 29, 2015
Students from Ostrowski lab make photoresponsive materials

January 8, 2015
Professor Peter Lu elected as American Physical Society (APS) Fellow

August 28, 2014
BGSU undergrads make strides in photochemical sciences

April 28, 2014
Photochemical Sciences graduate student Sergey Matveev receives the 2014 McMaster Graduate research Fellowship   

April 2014
Professor Bob Midden and undergraduate students work to make environmental concern a profitable option

April 2014
Photochemical Sciences Professor Mikhail Zamkov receives Olscamp Research Award

December 6, 2013
Center for Photochemical Sciences searches for new director

December 2, 2013
Students grasp concepts with online 'Constructive Chemistry"

September 26, 2013
New organic chemistry lab hosts open house

July 24, 2013
Ground broken for new Bureau of Criminal Investigation laboratory at BGSU

March 25, 2013
Forensic science specialization to be offered at BGSU

January 28, 2013
Alumni honors Dr. Tom Kinstle for fueling his energy research

January 15, 2013
SPIE highlights Doug Neckers as a pioneer in stereolithography

SEMINAR

All seminars will be held in Overman Hall 123 at 3:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

Fall 2024
September 18, 2024

Shaowei Li - University of California, San Diego

Title: TBA

September 25, 2024

Zachariah Page - University of Texas, Austin

Title: Light as a Chemical Tool to Access Next Generation Soft Materials

October 2, 2024

Ming Lee Tang, University of Utah

Title: Photon upconversion: getting molecules and nanocrystals to talk triplets

October 9, 2024

TBA

October 16, 2024

Matthew Allen - Wayne State University

Title: Lanthanide Chemistry in Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Photocatalysis, and Recycling

October 23, 2024

James Eagan - University of Akron

Title: The Carbonization of Butadiene as a Platform for Circular Polymers

October 30, 2024

Alice Walker - Wayne State University

Title: Multiscale and excited state simulations of fluorescent and photoactive proteins for rational design

November 6, 2024

Vincenzo Carnevale - Temple University

Title: Lipid-induced Hydrophobic Gating in the BK Potassium Channel

November 13, 2024

Michal Marszewski, University of Toledo

Title: From Aqueous to Non-Hydrolytic Sol-Gel: Novel Approaches to Nanoporous Metal Oxides

November 20, 2024

No seminar

November 27, 2024

Thanksgiving break - no seminar

December 4, 2024

Babak Borhan, Michigan State

Title: TBA

Winter 2020

January 29, 2020
Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy-Scripps Research Institute
Title: The Chemical Origins versus Biological Origins of Life?  

February 5, 2020
Adam Urbach - Trinity University
Title: Sequence-Predictive Recognition of Peptides and Proteins
by Synthetic Receptors

February 12, 2020
Priya Varadan - Wacker Chemical
Title: Industrial Careers in Chemistry

February 19, 2020
Larry W. Burggraf - Airforce Institute of Technology
Title: TBA

February 26, 2020
Gavin M. King - University of Missouri-Columbia
Title: Topographic measurements of individual molecules provide insight into general secretory system activity 

March 5, 2020
Tong Ren - Purdue University
Title: TBA

March 11, 2020
Miguel Garcia-Garibay - UCLA
Title: Reaction Mechanisms And Kinetics Studies With Molecular Nanocrystals:   A State in Transition Between Supramolecular Entities and Bulk Solids

March 18-25, 2020
No Seminar Session

April 1, 2020
Jim McCusker - Michigan State University
Title: TBA

April 8, 2020
Hedi Mattoussi - Florida State University
Title: TBA

April 15, 2020
Ana de Bettencourt-Dias - University of Nevada, Reno
Title: TBA

April 22, 2020
Terry Miller - The Ohio State University
Title: TBA

April 29, 2020
TBA
Title: TBA

Fall 2019

September 16, 2019
Erin Chernick - University of Tubingen
Title: Design and Synthesis of Functional Organic Molecules – From Renewable Energy
Devices to Spintronic Applications

September 18, 2019
Benjamin Schwartz - UCLA
Title - Ultrafast Spectroscopy, Device and Structural Studies of Charge Carriers in Doped Conjugated Polymers  

September 25, 2019
Pravas Deria - Southern Illinois University
Title: Towards Porous Light-Harvesting Frameworks: How Topology Controls the Critical Properties

October 2, 2019
Scott Hartley - Miami University
Title: Control of Molecular Geometry in Space and Time

October 16, 2019
Art van der Est - Brock Universty
Title: Spin Polarization in Natural and Artificial Photosynthesis

October 23, 2019
TBA
Title: TBA

October 30, 2019
TBA
Title: TBA

November 6, 2019
Shanlin Pan - University of Alabama
Title: Understanding Single Molecular and Single nanoparticle Electrochemistry with Combined Optical and Electrochemical Methods

November 13, 2019
TBA
Title: TBA

November 20, 2019
Arthur Winter - Iowa State University
Title: New Strategies to Achieve Photocaging Using Visible Light

November 29, 2019 - January 22, 2020
No Seminar Session

Winter 2019

February 6, 2019

Eakalak Khan

Title: Photodegradation of (E)- and (Z)-
Endoxifen: Kinetics, By-Products
Identification and Toxicity
Assessment

February 27, 2019

John Porco - Boston University

Title: Recent Studies Towards the Synthesis of Bioactive Natural Products

March 6, 2019

Yoan Simon - The University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg

Title: Damage Control and Light Management Through Polymer Chemistry

March 27, 2019

Rosa Di Felice - USC

Title TBA

April 10, 2019

Jin He - Florida International University

Title: Developing Multifunctional Nanopipette for Single-entity Studies

April 17, 2019

Eric Anslyn - University of Texas

Title: Three Tales of Supramolecular Analytical Chemistry

April 23, 2019

Steffen Jockush - Columbia

Title: Mechanistic and Kinetic Studies of Reactive Intermediates in Photoinitiated
Processes: Photostabilization of Fluorophores and Photoinitiators for
Polymerization

April 24, 2019

Alexander Weiss - University of Texas - Arlington

Title: Applications of Antimatter in Surface Science

May 22, 2019

Se Ryeon Lee - PPG (Group Leader)

PPG Info Session

Fall

September 12, 2018
Alan Sellinger - Colorado School of Mines
Title - Organic Materials for Application in Radiation Detection and Solar Cells

September 19, 2018
Thai Thayumanavan - Umass Amherst
Title: Towards Autonomously Responding Artificial Molecular Assemblies

September 26, 2018
Binghe Wang - Georgia State University
Title TBA

October 10, 2018
Julia Chan - UT Dallas
Title TBA

October 24, 2018
Hien M. Nguyen - Wayne State University
Title TBA

November 7, 2018
Khalid Salaita - Emory University
Title TBA

December 5, 2018

Gary F Moore - Arizona State University
Title TBA

Explore Our Programs

Chemistry


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Explore Our Programs

Chemistry


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Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of the baccalaureate degree, students in Chemistry are expected to be able to:

  • Exhibit a sound grasp of the basic ideas and the scope of modern chemistry, including newly evolving fields;
  • Develop strong problem solving skills including logical, mathematical, and computational techniques, as well as the use of models, to effectively plan projects and critically analyze experimental results;
  • Personally carry out laboratory procedures and develop modern laboratory skills, including proficiency in basic techniques and experience with a wide range of laboratory instruments;
  • Demonstrate critical professional and personal skills, including independent thinking, communication skills, the ability to work effectively within groups, and a commitment toward continuous learning.

Accreditation and/or Program/Cluster Review
Bowling Green State University [BGSU] is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.  BGSU has been accredited by the Higher Learning Commission since 01/01/1916. The most recent reaffirmation of accreditation was received in 2012 - 2013. Questions should be directed to the Office of Institutional Effectiveness.

The Chemistry program will undergo its next Program/Cluster Review during the Academic Year 2019-20.

Professional Licensure (If applicable)
Bowling Green State University programs leading to licensure, certification and/or endorsement, whether delivered online, face-to-face or in a blended format, satisfy the academic requirements for those credentials set forth by the State of Ohio.

Requirements for licensure, certification and/or endorsement eligibility vary greatly from one profession to another and from state to state. The Chemistry program does not lead to professional licensure.

Gainful Employment (If applicable)
     
Under the Higher Education Act Title IV disclosure requirements, an institution must provide current and prospective students with information about each of its programs that prepares students for gainful employment in a recognized occupation.

The Chemistry program is not a recognized occupation that requires a Gainful Employment disclosure.

Specializations:

  • Biochemistry
  • Forensic Chemistry

Updated: 11/05/2024 10:49AM