About Us

I would like to welcome you to the Department of Chemistry website at The University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus. The Department proudly offers undergraduate and graduate students world-class educational and research opportunities. Please explore the web pages that will inform you about undergraduate chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology undergraduate programs, environmental chemistry, and green chemistry. The latter option is part of the exciting new Bachelor of Sustainability degree. These programs prepare our undergraduates for graduate studies and professional schools, such as medicine, pharmacy, and dentistry, and those interested in employment in industry or government.

We offer both MSc and PhD programs in chemistry and biochemistry, often in interdisciplinary collaboration with other fields, such as biology, medicine, earth and environmental sciences, computer science, engineering, and management. Please visit the faculty research pages for more detailed information about how we tackle scientific challenges in discovering new enzymes, studying protein dynamics and function, designing new materials for solar energy conversion, studying single-molecule biophysics, synthesizing new molecules with biological importance and natural products, and exploring inorganic catalysis and coordination chemistry. The above-highlighted research areas are complemented by a broad range of spectroscopic and imaging instrumentations and a broadening representation of theoretical and computational chemistry expertise. The presence of ‘high-value’ agriculture in the Okanagan Valley opens up collaborations in plant chemistry/biotechnology (cannabis) and analytical carbohydrate (wine) chemistry. The Department also features nationally recognized chemistry education research, where the impacts and effectiveness of active and collaborative learning activities are studied in the context of general chemistry concepts and molecular structure and bonding models. I invite you to contact research advisors directly; they are standing by to answer your questions.

An important aspect of the Department’s mission is the involvement of undergraduate students in research projects that can provide them with first-hand experience in designing scientific experiments, working in the lab alongside graduate students, postdocs, and world-class scientists, and gaining experience in scientific presentations and publications. This takes place at one of the most successful departments in the Faculty of Sciences in terms of grants per capita, the success rate for new research faculties, and garnering awards such as Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research scholars, a Canada Research Chair, and a Principal’s Research Chair recognitions.

Please do not hesitate to inquire about openings during the semester or the summer months to join our scientific research endeavour.

Robert Szilagyi
Associate Professor and Department Head