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About The Department


About The Department

The Chemistry Department at Alma College is housed within the Ronald O. Kapp Science Laboratory Center. The Department was constructed in 1990 and contains well-equipped laboratories arranged in suites with adjacent instrumentation labs. Click here for a photographic tour of the department.

The Alma College Chemistry Department consists of 6 faculty members, 2 support staff, and 150 - 200 undergraduate students (on average), many of whom are involved in research projects with our faculty members.

Our students benefit from an education within the Chemistry Department by developing a fundamental understanding of chemistry, with the emphasis on new structural, analytical, synthetic and theoretical techniques applicable in both academic and industrial settings.

Research and Training Environment

The Department has a wide range of instrumentation, including high performance liquid chromatography, Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, atomic absorbance spectrometry and multinuclear superconducting nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometry. More than 40 computers are used to acquire and analyze data for lab work and research.

Research students become well versed in project-specific skills, general scientific awareness, and transferable skills such as written and oral communication as well as computer-related skills.

 

The memory and spiritual ideals of the late Bishop Thomas Makarios remain alive in a figurative sculpture that was dedicated in May 2009 near the center of campus. The Bishop, professor of religious studies at Alma for 25 years, was founder of the American Diocese of the Malankara Orthodox Church of India and the first Metropolitan Bishop of Canada, United Kingdom and Europe, and South Africa.

 

Graduate Profile

Dr. Brian Nielsen
Graduation: 1997
Departments: Chemistry

Brian Nielsen’s chemistry major paved the way for him to pursue his dream of medical school.

“Chemistry gave me a good foundation and created good habits,” he says. “Alma did a great job laying the foundation so I could really tackle a complicated program.”

Graduating from Alma in 1997, he continued on to Wayne State University for medical school, graduating in 2001.