Chemistry (Ph.D.)

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Program Information

The Department’s chemistry faculty research programs fall into the thematic focus areas of environmental chemistry and green chemistry, chemical sensor development, organic synthesis, materials chemistry, natural products chemistry, and chemical education. Within these multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary focus areas, students can select research projects that involve the traditional subdisciplines of chemistry; analytical, biochemistry, inorganic, organic and physical. Currently active research projects in the Department focus on various aspects of analytical chemistry, drug discover and delivery, synthesis or photoactive materials including polymers, materials chemistry and self assembly, chromatography, the chemistry of cell membranes, environmental and green chemistry, chemistry of climate change, photo-physical chemistry, natural products synthesis, biophysical chemistry, computational chemistry, and solid-state NMR. For additional information student should review the descriptions of current faculty research interests at chembiochem.sdstate.edu.

Research Instrumentation
The Department is equipped with modern instrumentation core facilities to support its research program. These facilities are readily available to graduate students for “hands-on” experience after successfully completing a short training course.

NMR core facility includes 600, 400, and 200 MHz solution FT-NMR spectrometers and 400, 300, 100 MHz wide-bore solid-state NMR spectrometers
Core campus mass spectrometry facility consists of a 7T ESI FTMS; a high-resolution magnetic sector mass spectrometer with EI and CI sources and GC, HPLC, pyrolysis and fast-atom bombardment capabilities, a MALDI-TOF mass spectrometer; a Eksigent/Thermo LTQ ESI LC-MS/SM dedicated to “bottom-up” proteomics studies and an Applied Biosystems SCIEX QTRAP ESI LC-MS/MS dedicated to small molecule and metablomics characterizations; and a Varian GCMS.
Core campus proteomics facility has all the necessary equipment to prepare samples for mass-spectrometry-based proteomics characterizations.
Optical Spectroscopy lab containing 2 FT-IR spectrometer with far-IR capabilities; time-resolved spectrofluorometer; atomic absorption and diode-array UV-Vis spectrophotometers.
Powder x-ray diffractometer

In addition to these departmental resources, individual research groups also maintained instrumentation including supercritical fluid chromatography and extraction, for FRET microscopy, laser light scattering, and computational chemistry. Campus super-computer facilities and on-line computer access to Web of Science, Chemical Abstracts Services and other on-line information sources are readily available.

Facilities
The Department is housed in the newly constructed Avera Health Science Center South and newly renovated Avera Health and Science Center North. Combined, these connected facilities provide 100,000 sq. ft. of research and instructional space.

Available Options for Graduate Degrees

Doctor of Philosophy 60 Credit Plan
90 Credit Plan

Core Requirements

Students are required to complete 21 credits of course work that includes 12 credits of core coursework and 9 credits specific to the research project, and 3 credit hours of seminar. The remaining credits in the 60-90 credit plan of study are dissertation research. Students must develop their program of study in consultation with their graduate research advisor and graduate advisory committee during the first semester in residence.

Candidacy Examinations

The Department uses a cumulative examination process as its written candidacy (comprehensive) examination for the doctorate in Chemistry or Biochemistry. A student must pass a total of 5 cumulative examinations in at least 3 subdisciplines over a period of two calendar years (24 possible tests). The oral candidacy (comprehensive) exam takes place within 6 months of completion of the cumulative exams. For this examination students are required to develop an original research proposal, written and defend it orally. In order to successfully defend such a proposal the student must be able to integrate their course work into a research environment, and its defense reflects that expectation.

Additional Admission Requirements

International students wishing to be considered for an assistantship should submit a complete application no later than March 15 for Fall admission and October 1 for Spring admission.

GRE: General and subject score are recommended but not required
TOEFL: Score of 580 paper-based, 237 computer-based, 92-93 Internet-based

General Requirements (PhD)

Graduate students must consult with their advisor before registering for graduate work.

For additional information see Doctor of Philosophy Degree Requirements .