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Chemistry and Physics

You’ve always liked science, but never really thought about it as a possible job. After all, how many of “Bill Nye, The Science Guy” can we handle? Well, there’s a lot more to science than meets the eye!

The Chemistry and Physics Department at Arkansas State University can help you find out how to turn your fascination with the scientific world into an exciting and rewarding career.

What can I do with my degree?

Armed with your strong background in science and your chemistry or physics degree from Arkansas State University, your career choices are vast and varied. Many students apply the research skills they developed in school to continue in the research field, but graduates also have found jobs in product development and sales and teaching. Others have gone on to graduate schools such as Florida State University, Texas A&M University, Miami University, Iowa State University, and the University of Washington just to name a few.

Well, that all depends on you and your interests. Arkansas State University offers several different majors to fit your needs.
- If you want to pursue a career in secondary education or science journalism, we suggest the Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry or B.S.E. in either physics or chemistry with a minor in English or Communications.
- If you like biochemistry, medical school, or pharmaceutical research go for the Bachelor of Science in Chemistry with a biology minor..
- If you think you would like to pursue a pharmacy degree you should pursue the B.S. with pre-professional concentration or the B.A. with a biology minor.
- If you think that you would like to pursue a career in industry or wish to pursue a graduate degree you should pursue the B.S. with a concentration or minor in the applicable fields (biology, engineering, agriculture, etc.)

- If you would like to work in environmental consulting or purse a graduate degree in environmental chemistry of a related discipline you should pursue the B.S. in chemistry with an environmental concentration.

- If you would like to pursue a career in the nuclear industry or a graduate degree in nuclear physics you should purse the BS in Physics with a chemistry minor.

- If you would like to pursue a career in astronomy or graduate work in astronomy you should pursue a B.S. in Physics with an environmental or mathematics concentration.

When you graduate, you’ll be prepared to work in the chemical industry or go on to graduate school.

• Get to know your professors. Our moderate class sizes allow you to get to know the faculty and work closely with them. You’ll have many opportunities to get hands-on experience on projects.

• We’ve got cool, new, computer-interfaced equipment like a mass spectrometers (ICP-MS, GC-MS), Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer (FT-IR), ultravioletvisible spectrophotometers (UV-vis), high performance liquid chromatographs (HPLC, IC), pulse diode lasers, cavity ring down spectrometer, nuclear magnetic resonance (FT-NMR) and capillary column gas chromatography (GC). Other equipment includes electrochemical potentiometer and laser optic setup.

• We’ve also got a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and tunneling scanning EM

• Computers with chemical and physical modeling programs such as Gaussian 98, Titan, PCSpartan, ChemOffice and Hyperchem are available. Other science- related software programs available to students include HiTran, MathCad, Kaleidagraph and SigmaPlot.

• Research, research, research!. At any point during your undergraduate degree program but particularly during you your junior and senior year, you’ll be involved in a faculty-guided research project. You could work with the US Geological Survey studying the nitrogen isotopes in soil gas by laser spectroscopy or working with the Cyclotron facility at Texas A&M University to study the physics of neutrons.

The Chemistry and Physics Department is located in the Laboratory Sciences Complex. In addition to instructional labs in physics and chemistry, the complex also contains faculty research laboratories, and student computer labs.

• Dendrimer synthesis for mitigation of contamination in aqueous and gas systems (Arkansas Biosciences Institute)

• Nitrogen isoptomer composition in soil gas by laser spectroscopy (U. of Washington, USGS)

• Laser ablation ICP-MS of fish ear bones for environmental life history reconstruction (AGFC, NSF)

• Mathematical modeling of the physics of the nucleus during atomic fission and fusion (NSF, Texas A&M)