The School of Chemistry is a school of the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

, in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. In the 2008

Research Assessment Exercise The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) was an exercise undertaken approximately every five years on behalf of the four UK higher education funding councils (HEFCE, SHEFC, HEFCW, DELNI) to evaluate the quality of research undertaken by British hig ...

(RAE) the school was ranked sixth in the UK.

History and alumni

The teaching of Chemistry at Edinburgh began in 1713 when James Crawford was appointed to the 'Chair of Physik and Chymistry' (where 'physik' = natural science/art of medicine). The department has occupied many sites in its history, from a house at the top of Robertson's Close in the city centre, to purpose-built facilities in the central campus at Old College through to its current location at

King's Buildings The King's Buildings (colloquially known as just King's or KB) is a campus of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Located in the suburb of Blackford, the site contains most of the schools within the College of Science and Engineering, ex ...

. Each move has brought with it expansions in size and status until the department occupied the position it does now, as one of the world's leading Chemistry

teaching Teaching is the practice implemented by a ''teacher'' aimed at transmitting skills (knowledge, know-how, and interpersonal skills) to a learner, a student, or any other audience in the context of an educational institution. Teaching is closely ...

and

research Research is " creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...

establishments. The department also hosts the oldest student-run Chemistry society in the world which was created in 1785 and is still active today. Today the department carries on the traditions of Chemistry at Edinburgh both in teaching and research. The collaborative research School formed with

St Andrews University (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

Chemistry department to form EaStCHEM has strengthened research in Scotland in the chemical sciences. Alumni and former staff include: James_Dewar

* Thomas Anderson, discoverer of

pyridine Pyridine is a basic heterocyclic organic compound with the chemical formula . It is structurally related to benzene, with one methine group replaced by a nitrogen atom. It is a highly flammable, weakly alkaline, water-miscible liquid with a ...

Joseph Black Joseph Black (16 April 1728 – 6 December 1799) was a Scottish physicist and chemist, known for his discoveries of magnesium, latent heat, specific heat, and carbon dioxide. He was Professor of Anatomy and Chemistry at the University of Glas ...

, discoverer of

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is trans ...

latent heat Latent heat (also known as latent energy or heat of transformation) is energy released or absorbed, by a body or a thermodynamic system, during a constant-temperature process — usually a first-order phase transition. Latent heat can be underst ...

and

specific heat In thermodynamics, the specific heat capacity (symbol ) of a substance is the heat capacity of a sample of the substance divided by the mass of the sample, also sometimes referred to as massic heat capacity. Informally, it is the amount of heat t ...

Perdita Barran Perdita Elizabeth Barran is a Professor of Mass Spectrometry at the University of Manchester. She is Director of the Michael Barber Centre for Collaborative Mass Spectrometry. She develops and applies ion-mobility spectrometry–mass spectromet ...

, Professor in the School of Chemistry, University of Manchester * Neil Campbell, chemist and amateur athlete * Archibald Scott Couper, proposed an early theory of chemical structure and bonding * John Davy, discoverer of phosgene *

James Dewar Sir James Dewar (20 September 1842 – 27 March 1923) was a British chemist and physicist. He is best known for his invention of the vacuum flask, which he used in conjunction with research into the liquefaction of gases. He also studied a ...

, inventor of the Dewar flask *

Narayan Hosmane Narayan S. Hosmane is an Indian-born cancer research scientist who made the featured article in NRI Achievers magazine and is currently distinguished research professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He received the Humboldt Research Award f ...

, cancer researcher,

BNCT Neutron capture therapy (NCT) is a type of radiotherapy for treating locally invasive malignant tumors such as primary brain tumors, recurrent cancers of the head and neck region, and cutaneous and extracutaneous melanomas. It is a two-step pro ...

* David Leigh, Forbes Chair of Organic Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh from 2001 to 2012, Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology winner in 2007 * Christina Miller, synthesized phosphorus trioxide *

Dai Rees David James Rees, (31 March 1913 – 15 November 1983) was one of the Britain's leading golfers either side of the Second World War. The winner of many prestigious tournaments in Britain, Europe and farther afield, Rees is best remembered as ...

, CEO of the Medical Research Council from 1987 to 1996 * Prafulla Chandra Roy, distinguished chemist and founder of Bengal Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals *

Daniel Rutherford Daniel Rutherford (3 November 1749 – 15 December 1819) was a Scottish physician, chemist and botanist who is known for the isolation of nitrogen in 1772. Life Rutherford was born on 3 November 1749, the son of Anne Mackay and Professor John ...

, discovered

nitrogen Nitrogen is the chemical element with the symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a nonmetal and the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, often called the pnictogens. It is a common element in the universe, estimated at se ...

while he was studying at the University of Edinburgh in 1772 *

James Fraser Stoddart Sir James Fraser Stoddart (born 24 May 1942) is a British-American chemist who is Board of Trustees Professor of Chemistry and head of the Stoddart Mechanostereochemistry Group in the Department of Chemistry at Northwestern University in ...

, supramolecular chemist * Lesley Yellowlees CBE, first female president of the

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society (professional association) in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Royal Instit ...

, Vice-President of the University of Edinburgh

Organisation

The school has a research staff of approximately 120 individuals, and an academic staff of over 40. Current annual enrollment includes around 200 research students, and 450 taught

postgraduate Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate ( bachelor's) degree. The organization and ...

and

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-le ...

students. EaStCHEM is the joint research school in chemistry between the Universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews. It has eight research groupings: Chemical Biology; Synthesis; Materials; Structural Chemistry; Chemical Physics; Biophysical Chemistry; Inorganic Chemistry; and Catalysis. In the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008, the most in-depth analysis of research outputs for seven years, EaStCHEM, submitted 73% of all world leading outputs (4*) in Scotland and 12% of world leading outputs in all of the UK. From 31 submissions EastChem was the largest in UK Chemistry. EaStCHEM comes joint 4th in the Grade Point Average (GPA) metric, and first when staff numbers are factored in (the power ranking).

Research Themes

The School has four major research themes as part of EaStCHEM: The Chemistry/Biology Interface area is broad, with particular strengths in the areas of

protein structure Protein structure is the three-dimensional arrangement of atoms in an amino acid-chain molecule. Proteins are polymers specifically polypeptides formed from sequences of amino acids, the monomers of the polymer. A single amino acid monom ...

and

function Function or functionality may refer to: Computing * Function key, a type of key on computer keyboards * Function model, a structured representation of processes in a system * Function object or functor or functionoid, a concept of object-oriente ...

, mechanistic enzymology, proteomics, biologically targeted synthesis, the application of high throughput and combinatorial approaches and biophysical chemistry, which focuses on the development and application of

physicochemical Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mecha ...

techniques to biological systems. Chemical Physics/Physical Chemistry is the fundamental study of molecular properties and processes. Areas of expertise include probing molecular structure in the

gas phase In the physical sciences, a phase is a region of space (a thermodynamic system), throughout which all physical properties of a material are essentially uniform. Examples of physical properties include density, index of refraction, magnetiza ...

, clusters and nanoparticles, the development and application of physicochemical techniques such as mass spectrometry to molecular systems and the EaStCHEM surface science group, who study complex molecules on surfaces, probing the structure property-relationships employed in

heterogeneous catalysis In chemistry, heterogeneous catalysis is catalysis where the phase of catalysts differs from that of the reactants or products. The process contrasts with homogeneous catalysis where the reactants, products and catalyst exist in the same phase. ...

. A major feature is In Silico Scotland, a world class research computing facility. Molecular Synthesis encompasses the synthesis and characterisation at ambient and extreme conditions of organic and inorganic compounds, including those with application in homogeneous catalysis, nanotechnology,

supramolecular chemistry Supramolecular chemistry refers to the branch of chemistry concerning chemical systems composed of a discrete number of molecules. The strength of the forces responsible for spatial organization of the system range from weak intermolecular forces ...

, drug discovery and ligand design. The development of innovative synthetic and characterisation methodologies (particularly in structural chemistry) is a key feature. The Materials Chemistry group is one of the largest materials chemistry groups in the UK. Areas of strength include the design, synthesis and characterisation of strongly correlated electronic materials, battery and fuel cell materials and devices, porous solids, materials at extreme pressures and temperatures, polymer microarray technologies and technique development for materials and

nanomaterials * Nanomaterials describe, in principle, materials of which a single unit is sized (in at least one dimension) between 1 and 100 nm (the usual definition of nanoscale). Nanomaterials research takes a materials science-based approach to na ...

analysis.

Senior academic staff

senior academic staff (full

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

s) in the school include: *

Polly Arnold Polly Louise Arnold One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: (born 24 July 1972) is director of the chemical sciences division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and professor of ...

* Paul Attfield * * Eleanor Campbell * * Alison Hulme * * Guy Lloyd-Jones *

Neil McKeown Neil Bruce McKeown FRSE is a chemist who is currently Crawford Professor of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh. Education He was educated at the University of East Anglia (BSc, 1984; PhD, 1987). Honours McKeown was awarded the Beilby Me ...

* *Carole A. Morrison *Jason Love *Paul N. Barlow *Scott L. Cockroft *Mathew Heal *Michael Ingleson *Simon Parsons *Neil Robertson *Dusan Uhrin *Andy Mount *Michael Seery

References

External links