General Information

The Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology offers a program of study leading to the degree of doctor of philosophy in chemistry, in the special fields of biological, inorganic, organic, and physical chemistry. An interdepartmental PhD program in chemical physics is also available.

The entering graduate student at Harvard joins an active research center as a co-worker at the start of or during the student’s second term. The research, based on the student’s own interests and those of the chosen faculty supervisor, is concerned with problems of intrinsic interest and importance at the frontiers of chemical science. The student joins a community composed of about 210 graduate students, 180 postdoctoral fellows, and 30 faculty members.

Regular seminars are held by most faculty members for their research groups. The exchange of views, the solution of problems, and the discussion of recent developments have made this setting an important component of the graduate program. Colloquia in special fields of chemistry and frequent lectures by visiting chemists are continual catalysts for creative research. Considerable opportunity exists for participation in other departments and groups inside Harvard University, at MIT, and at other research centers in the Boston area.

Departmental research facilities are located in seven buildings: Mallinckrodt, Conant, Converse, Naito, Bauer, Connors Infill, and the Mallinckrodt/Hoffman “Link.” These laboratories are adjacent to the Departments of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Physics, Earth and Planetary Sciences, the Center for Genomic Research and to the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Also nearby is the Science Center, housing Mathematics, Statistics, and History of Science, but devoted primarily to undergraduate teaching facilities. In addition to the faculty research labs, the Chemistry and Chemical Biology complex contains facilities for analytical instrumentation (NMR, Mass Spectroscopy, and X-ray Crystallography), a library, a stockroom for lab supplies and computer workstations for molecular modeling and chemical information retrieval. A machine shop, electronics shop, a microchemistry laboratory for protein structure determination, and a variety of other specialized instrumentation are available in adjacent departments.

Admission

We encourage prospective students to submit their applications online whenever possible at https://apply.embark.com/grad/Harvard/GSAS .

If necessary, students may also request a paper application from:
        Office of Admissions and Financial Aid
        Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
        Holyoke Center, 3rd floor,
        1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138

Applications for admission to study for the PhD degree in chemistry are accepted from students who have received the bachelor’s degree or have had equivalent preparation. These applications should be initiated during the fall of the year preceding the September when admission is desired. Normally, students are admitted only for September.

The Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology does not require an interview. Applicants must take the GRE general and chemistry examinations. These must be taken no later than November of the year prior to admission, and preferably earlier. TOEFL is required of all foreign applicants other than those whose native language is English.

Financial Support

The Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology meets the financial needs of its graduate students through Department Scholarships, Department Fellowships, Teaching Fellowships, Research Assistantships, and independent outside fellowships. Financial support is awarded on a 12-month basis, enabling students to pursue their research throughout the year. Tuition support is provided to all graduate students in good standing.

Generally, students in their first year are supported by a departmental fellowship that covers tuition and living expenses. Beginning in the second semester, all students not supported by independent fellowships are expected to teach for two semesters. Teaching fellowships are term-long jobs typically available on a quarter-time or half-time basis. A quarter-time assignment involves about ten hours per week of preparation and instruction. With the research advisor’s concurrence, a student may teach in subsequent years.

Research assistantships provide an opportunity for students to devote more time to research. The 12-month research assistantship is the major vehicle for student support within a research group. Research assistantships typically start in July after the student has completed the first year of the graduate program.

Independent fellowships are outside awards (e.g., NSF, Hertz Foundation) covering a significant portion of a student’s stipend and tuition throughout his or her tenure in the PhD program. Information on major graduate fellowships is available at www.gsas. harvard.edu/financial/fellowship.html , or can be obtained by writing to the respective agencies directly, or by inquiring at your college career counseling office. A limited number of corporate fellowships are available to meritorious students after the first year.

Departmental Requirements

Qualifying Requirements. Students must pass four advanced half-courses in chemistry and/or related fields (e.g., biochemistry, physics, etc.) with average grades of B or higher. Grades of B- will count as a pass if balanced by a B+ or better on a one-for-one basis. An advanced course is one designated in the announcement of courses as “for undergraduates and graduates” or “primarily for graduates” with the exception of the following courses that cannot be used for credit toward the PhD degree in Chemistry: Chemistry 135 and 165. Courses numbered 301 or above do not count toward this requirement.

During the orientation week (generally the first week before classes), students will formulate a plan of study in consultation with a member of the Cirriculum Advising Committee (CAC). The CAC may withhold approval for courses deemed inappropriate for the PhD degree in Chemistry. It is expected that required coursework be completed no later than the end of the third term in residence.

In consultation with the CAC, special arrangements may also be made in the following circumstances:

(a) Advanced courses passed with honor grades by a Harvard undergraduate, who
is subsequently admitted to the Graduate School, may be counted in fulfillment of the departmental course requirement. They may be counted for residence requirements only if in excess of the courses required for the AB degree (see The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Handbook).

(b) Students who have taken elsewhere the equivalent of a Harvard advanced course may, by arrangement with the Advisory Committee, meet the requirement with respect to that course without enrollment by fulfilling such requirements as the instructor in the course stipulates. (See The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Handbook, Credit for Work Done Elsewhere.)

Rotations. Each entering student will participate in three eight-week lab rotations during the fall semester of his or her first year. However, students may join a research group upon completion of the second eight-week rotation. The goal of the rotations is to broaden a student’s scientific perspective by exposing him or her to the science and environment of different laboratories in the department.

Continuance. Continuation in the degree program is contingent on the following: (1) satisfactory completion of required coursework, (2) successful presentation and defense of a research proposal in the student’s second year of residence, (3) admission to a research group during the second term in residence, unless extension of time has been approved by the Director of Graduate Studies, and (4) satisfactory progress in 300-level research courses.

Master of Arts (AM)

The Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology does not grant terminal AM degrees. Students are typically awarded the AM degree after one or two years in the doctoral program. The requirements for this degree are:

Residence. Minimum of one year of full-time study.

Program of Study. The student must pass with honor grades eight advanced half-courses diversified among the fields of chemistry. Typically, four of these half-courses are classroom work, and the remaining four are research courses. As many as four half-courses of the required eight may be taken outside the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, provided the Advisory Committee approves them. Students planning to take such courses should petition the Advisory Committee in advance of taking the courses in order to have them count for the AM degree.

Language. A thorough command of oral and written English is required. Remedial work in English may be required of students whose proficiency is deemed inadequate.

Thesis: None required.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Although the curriculum for this degree includes certain requirements in formal coursework, the majority of the graduate -student’s time and energy will be devoted to original investigations in a chosen field of research. Students have many opportunities to learn about current research programs, prior to embarking upon research, both during rotations and through informal discussions with faculty and students. Upon selecting a research area, the student then arranges with one of the members of the department to undertake some particular problem, spending as much time as possible on that work.

At the end of their first year, students are expected to constitute, in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies, their Graduate Advising Committee (GAC). Students are expected to present and defend a research proposal in their second year of residence before the GAC. In addition, students are expected to meet with the GAC in the fall term of their fourth and sixth years. The objective of these meetings is to bring focus to the timely completion of the degree requirements, to foster (non-advisor) faculty-student interactions, and to provide career counseling.

The requirements for this degree are:

Prerequisites for Admission. Ordinarily the minimum requirements for admission are at least one year each of inorganic, organic, and physical chemistry, one year of college physics, and mathematics (calculus).

Program of Study. In addition to the requirements outlined at the beginning of this section, the research supervisor may require that other courses be taken in preparation for a particular research program.

Language. A thorough command of oral and written English is required. Remedial work in English may be required of students whose proficiency is deemed inadequate.

Oral Examinations. As described above, students in organic, inorganic and physical chemistry are expected to present and defend a research proposal in their second year of residence before a faculty committee.

Dissertation. The PhD dissertation is based on independent scholarly research, which, upon conclusion, is defended in an oral examination before a PhD committee. The preparation of a satisfactory dissertation normally requires at least four years of full-time research.

The Degree of Doctor of -Philosophy in Chemical Physics

The Chemical Physics program includes coursework in the Department of Physics as well as that of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and is administered by special interdepartmental committees. The requirements in the field of chemical physics are described in the section on the PhD in Chemical Physics in this publication.

Higher Degrees in Chemistry

Selected PhD Dissertations

Gregory Bokinsky, “Single-molecule Fluorescence Studies of RNA Folding and Protein-Nucleic Acid Assembly”

William Chain, “Synthesis of All-Carbon Quaternary Centers by the Sequential Alkyation of Pseudoephedrine Amides”

Conor Evans, “CARS Microscopy: Sensitive and Noninvasive Chemical Imaging for Biomedicine”

Daina Graybosch, “The Interaction of Gyrase with DNA: Biochemical and Structural Characterization”

Polina Kehayova, “In vivo Evolution of RNA-Based Activators and Silencers of Transcription”

Vijay Krishnamurthy, “Thermodynamic Studies of Rational Ligand Design and Multivalency”

Zhengwen Li, “Atomic Layer Deposition of Metal Films: From Precursor Synthesis to Film Deposition”

Pavel Nagorny, “Total Synthesis of Oasomycin A”

Christopher Neumann, “Spirocyclic Oxindole-Pyrrolidines: Diversity-Oriented Synthesis and Chemical Genetics”

Lars Nielsen, “Catalytic Asymmetric Ring-Opening Reactions of Epoxides: Mechanistic Investigation and Theoretical Studies”

Adam Winkleman, “Manipulating Particles and Cells Using Electrostatic and Magnetic Forces”

Gengfeng Zheng, “Semiconductor Nanowire FET Sensors: Label-free, Ultrasensitive, Multiplexed Biomolecule Detection and Biophysical Studies”

Faculty and Research Interests

James Anderson, PhD, Philip S. Weld Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry. Chemical reactivity of radical-radical and radical-molecule systems; chemical catalysis sustained by free radical chain reactions in the Earth’s stratosphere and troposphere; mechanistic links between chemistry, radiation, and dynamics in the atmosphere that control climate; high-accuracy satellite observations for testing and systematic improvement of climate forecasts.

Alán Aspuru-Guzik, PhD, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Theoretical physical chemistry. Quantum computation and its application to chemistry problems. Development of electronic structure methods for atoms and molecules: density functional theory and quantum Monte Carlo. Theoretical understanding and design of renewable energy materials.

Theodore Betley, PhD, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Synthetic inorganic chemistry targeting chemical energy conversion, structure and reactivity of polymetallic and organometallic compounds.

Adam Cohen, PhD, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Single-molecule- spectroscopy and biophysics; Brownian motion and feedback control; electrokinetics, polymer physics, fluctuation-induced forces; nonequilibrium van der Waals/Casimir forces; instrumentation.

David Evans, PhD, Abbott and James Lawrence Professor of Chemistry. Design of stereoselective reactions and the applications of these reactions to natural products -synthesis.

Cynthia Friend, PhD, Theodore William Richards Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Materials Science. Surface chemistry: heterogeneous catalysis, nanostructure growth, environmental chemistry, laser-assisted materials processing, heterogeneous chemistry relevant to origins of life, and chemical sensor technology.

Roy Gordon, PhD, Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of Chemistry. Intermolecular forces, transport processes and molecular motion; theory of crystal structures and phase transitions, kinetics of crystal growth; solar energy, chemical vapor deposition; synthesis of inorganic precursors to new materials; thin films and their applications to microelectronics and solar cells.

Eric Heller, PhD, Professor of Chemistry and Physics. Few body quantum mechanics, scattering theory, and quantum chaos. Physics of semiconductor devices, ultracold molecular collisions nonadiabatic interactions in molecules and gasses.

Eric Jacobsen, PhD, Sheldon Emery Professor of Chemistry. Mechanistic and synthetic organic chemistry. Development of new synthetic methods, with emphasis on asymmetric catalysis. Physical-organic studies of reactivity and recognition phenomena in homogeneous catalysis. Stereoselective synthesis of natural products.

Daniel Kahne, PhD, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology. Synthetic organic chemistry and its applications to problems in chemistry and biology.

Charles Lieber, PhD, Mark Hyman, Jr. Professor of Chemistry. Chemistry and physics of materials with an emphasis on nanoscale systems. Rational synthesis of new nanoscale build-ing blocks and nanostructured solids; development of methodologies for hierarchical assembly of nanoscale building blocks into complex and functional systems; investigation of fundamental electronic, optical and optoelectronic properties of nanoscale materials; design and development of nanoelectronics and nanophotonic systems, with emphasis on electrically-based biological detection, digital and quantum computing, and photonic systems.

David R. Liu, PhD, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Natural Sciences. Organic chemistry and chemical biology of molecular evolution, nucleic acid-templated organic synthesis, reaction discovery, protein and nucleic acid evolution and engineering, synthetic polymer evolution; generally, effective molarity-based approaches to controlling reactivity and evolution-based approaches to the discovery of functional synthetic and biological molecules.

Gavin MacBeath, PhD, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Systems biology; proteomics; and the development of protein microarray-based technology to reveal the function of complex biological systems. Efforts include functional proteomics,
network-directed small molecule discovery, and quantitative protein profiling.

Andrew Myers, PhD, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Synthesis and study of complex natural products; development of synthetic methodology.

David Nelson, PhD, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and Professor of Applied Physics. Theory of the structure and statistical mechanics of metallic glasses; investigations of two-dimensional generalizations of linear polymer chains.

Hongkun Park, PhD, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and Professor of Physics. Physics and chemistry of nanostructured materials; the development of neuro-
electronic interface; electron transport through individual molecules, nanowires, and nanotubes; single-molecule optoelectronics; synthesis and characterization of transition-metal-oxide and chalcogenide nanostructures; the interrogation of complex neural networks using optical and electronic techniques.

Tobias Ritter, PhD, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Synthetic organic and organometallic chemistry. Development of new synthetic methods based on transition metal catalysis, stereoselective synthesis of biologically active natural and unnatural products.

Alan Saghatelian, PhD, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Development and application of global metabolite profiling (metabolomics) as a general discovery tool for chemical biology. Elucidation of molecules and metabolic pathways that control phenotype at the cellular and physiological level.

Stuart Schreiber, PhD, Morris Loeb Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Devel-opment of diversity-oriented synthesis, chemical genetics, and ChemBank; application to an understanding of cell circuitry and disease biology.

Matthew Shair, PhD, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Synthesis of small molecules that have interesting biological functions and elucidation of their cellular mechanisms; development of organic synthesis.

Eugene Shakhnovich, PhD, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Theoretical biomolecular science including protein folding, theory of molecular evolution, structural bioinformatics, rational drug design, populational genomics, other complex systems including complex polymers, spin glasses, etc.

Gregory Verdine, PhD, Erving Professor of Chemistry. Protein-nucleic acid interactions; transcriptional regulation; X-ray crystallography; structure and function of DNA-processing enzymes; discovery of novel ligands to peptide receptors.

Suzanne Walker, PhD, Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics (Medical School). Chemical biology applied to microbial systems; enzymology; mechanism of action of antibiotics.

George Whitesides, PhD, Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor. Physical organic chemistry, materials science, biophysics, complexity, surface science, microfluidics, self-assembly, micro- and nanotechnology, and cell-surface biochemistry.

Xiaoliang Sunney Xie, PhD, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Single-
molecule spectroscopy and dynamics; molecular interaction and chemical dynamics in biological systems; live cell imaging.

Xiaowei Zhuang, PhD, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and of Physics. Investigating complex biological processes at the single-molecule level; live cell imaging; development of new techniques for single-molecule sensing and imaging.