Environmental Chemistry
M.S., M.P.S. and Ph.D.

Introduction

A formal curriculum in Environmental Chemistry was established at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in 1976. There are now Environmental Chemistry programs at the BS, MS and Ph.D. levels, with 7 faculty members in the Chemistry Department participating. This remains one of the few Ph.D. programs in environmental chemistry resident in a Chemistry Department anywhere in the country, and one of the largest. Along with the entire Chemistry Department, the environmental chemists have moved into the brand new and newly equipped Jahn Laboratory.

Environmental Chemistry at SUNY-ESF stresses the use of the fundamental areas of Chemistry to study chemicals and chemical processes in Earth's biosphere, including soil, water and air. Because there is still much to be learned about the chemistry of our environment and because future environmental problems are difficult to predict, our program avoids a "Pollutant of the Week" approach that would leave graduates unprepared for future developments. Instead, we emphasize a framework wherein students can incorporate new knowledge as it becomes available and deal with new problems as they appear.

SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry provides a unique setting for the study and practice of Environmental Chemistry. In addition to the Chemistry Department, ESF houses faculty with expertise in areas such as biology, ecology, environmental engineering, law and environmental policy. It also maintains an excellent library on environmental and natural resource subjects, and it operates several field stations for research in forest and aquatic environments. The small size of ESF promotes the exchange of ideas across disciplines and fosters a community of scholars focused on the environment. The resources of a large university are also freely available to ESF students through the services of Syracuse University, located adjacent to the ESF campus.

Program of Study

Incoming graduate students in Environmental Chemistry are required to take two introductory lecture courses and one laboratory course in environmental chemistry. Advanced courses in Environmental Chemistry are also offered, such as Chromatography, Environmental Organic Chemistry, and Atmospheric Photochemistry and Kinetics. To ensure that students obtain a strong background in the fundamentals of chemistry, they are required to make selections from among basic graduate courses in Analytical, Physical, Organic, and Inorganic Chemistry from the offerings of Syracuse University. Students are also encouraged to take related graduate and upper-division undergraduate courses offered in other departments at ESF and at Syracuse University.

Research is at the core of any Ph.D. program. Research is conducted in the laboratory, in the field, and on computers. The links below will take you to the home pages of individual faculty members. Or you can follow this link for Contact Information for Chemistry faculty.

Prospective graduate students are strongly encouraged to contact any professor whose research is of interest!

Faculty and their Specialties

Follow the links immediately below for detailed descriptions of research of any professor. Many other useful links are found just below the listing of faculty.

• Dr. Gregory L. Boyer, Biochemistry
• Dr. Theodore S. Dibble, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physical Chemistry
• Dr. John P. Hassett, Aquatic Chemistry
• Dr. David L. Johnson, Particles in Air and Water
• Dr. David J. Kieber, Aquatic Chemistry
• Dr. Mark A. Teece, Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry
• Dr. Francis X. Webster, Chemical Ecology, Pheromones, Organic Chemistry
• Dr. Richard Zepp, Adjunct, US Environmental Protection Agency

Current Research Interests

• harmful algal blooms (Boyer)
• microbial uptake of heavy metals (Boyer)
• photochemistry in lakes and streams (Hassett) and marine waters (Kieber)
• new techniques for field and laboratory analysis of molecules, radicals, and particles in water, air, and soil (Dibble , Hassett, Johnson , Kieber, Teece)
• novel organic chemicals from wood pulp (LaLonde)
• insect pheremones (Webster)
• fate of Persistant Organic Pollutants like PCBs, dioxins, and mirex (Hassett)
• kinetics and mechanisms of smog chemistry (Dibble)
• global carbon and sulfur cycles (Kieber)
• coral reef ecosystems (Teece)
• food webs (Teece)
• biological chemistry (Teece)
  

Financial Support

Selected applicants to the graduate program will be offered a full tuition waiver and a 12 month stipend that will cover their living expenses, and the costs of books and fees. Students are supported primarily as research assistants rather than teaching assistants, and as a result they have more time to devote to their research.

Request an Application to the Graduate Program:

Office of Instruction and Graduate Studies
SUNY-ESF
1 Forestry Drive
Syracuse, NY 13210
(315) 470-6595
esfgrad@esf.edu

Postdoctoral scientist Wang Chuji and graduate student Liat Shemesh align one the lasers in Dr. Dibble's laboratory.

The sticky bottom surface of a linden leaf (shown here) traps particles. Dr. Johnson's group analyzes particulate matter using scanning electron microscopy and X-ray fluoresence spectrsocopy.

Prospective Graduate Students: to have us contact you, please follow this link to a brief form.