April, 1997
The Chemistry Department has a rich and long tradition of excellence in instruction, research and service. Since its establishment in the 1870's, departments and units that have been spawned by the Department include the Agricultural Experiment Station, Grain Science and Industry, Chemical Engineering and Biochemistry. The Chemistry Department was an early leader in research and was the first department at Kansas State University to offer the Ph.D. Today, the Department continues to exercise important leadership in research with a program of wide-ranging activities: from the study of environmental problems; to the synthesis and characterization of new compounds that may have medicinal, commercial or chemical significance; to theoretical and experimental investigations of how and why reactions occur in the gas and condensed phases; and to chemical research that supports the missions of the University and the state of Kansas. Extramurally funded research of our research programs exceeds $1,500,000 annually and is an important economic resource for the State. Equally important, these programs enhance cultural diversity by bringing students, postdoctoral research workers and faculty from numerous nations for study, seminars and visits.
The Chemistry Department offer academic programs at the B.S./B.A., M.S. and Ph.D. levels. Although an important function of these programs is to prepare students for careers in the chemical profession, these programs also provide substantial support to the instructional and research programs of other departments and units at Kansas State University. That chemistry is an essential component of all engineering and natural sciences is evidenced by the fact that more that fifteen hundred engineering, health science, physical science, agriculture and other students enroll each semester in our instructional program.
Our service activities are equally wide-ranging. Chemistry Department faculty have been involved in university governance and serve the needs of the chemical profession and society as editors of scientific journals, as referees of research proposals and manuscripts, as members of state and national science advisory panels, as consultants to industry and government, and as resource people to area schools and civic groups.