{"id":8506,"date":"2013-12-11T15:24:31","date_gmt":"2013-12-11T20:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=8506"},"modified":"2014-01-25T18:09:47","modified_gmt":"2014-01-25T23:09:47","slug":"chemistry-ranked-as-one-of-the-nations-best-undergrad-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=8506","title":{"rendered":"Chemistry ranked as one of the nation\u2019s best undergrad programs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"chem1\"<\/a> Unlike its counterparts at many other schools, TCNJ\u2019s chemistry department is facing what Chairperson David Hunt<\/strong> calls \u201ca pleasurable problem to have.\u201d It seems there are more qualified students trying to enroll in the program than the department can accommodate.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just potential students who have taken note of the department. A group of national experts that recently completed a yearlong review of the program used words like \u201cextraordinary\u201d and \u201cremarkable\u201d to describe what is happening in TCNJ\u2019s chemistry program. \u201cThe department is poised to capture national attention,\u201d their report indicated.<\/p>\n

In fact, it already has. The department now ranks in the top four percent of chemistry programs nationally \u2014 23rd out of 653 in the U.S. \u2014 in graduation of American Chemical Society (ACS) certified bachelor\u2019s degree chemistry graduates, and is the top producer of ACS-certified bachelor\u2019s degree chemistry graduates in New Jersey.<\/p>\n

Hunt said a \u201cconfluence of events\u201d that occurred during the past 10 years led to these developments, specifically the department\u2019s work in overhauling its curriculum, its acquisition of nearly $1 million worth of research-grade instrumentation, and its recruitment of a talented group of research-active faculty members who are deeply committed to undergraduate education.<\/p>\n

Among other things, the curriculum changes gave students multiple degree tracks to choose from and added an array of innovative, advanced upper-level elective courses. Perhaps most important: the changes allowed faculty-student research to flourish. Students can earn academic credit for the collaborative work they do as part of a faculty member\u2019s research team. In these settings, TCNJ\u2019s undergraduates engage in \u201cpeer-reviewed research that gets published in major international journals,\u201d Hunt said, noting that the experiences are similar to what students will get when doing research at the industrial level or in graduate school.<\/p>\n

\"chem-2\"<\/a>That research would not be possible without the department\u2019s state-of-the-art instrumentation. Within the past five years, the department has acquired both single-crystal and powder X-ray diffractometers, two 400 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers, a liquid chromatograph mass spectrometer, and an array of high-pressure liquid chromatographs. Hunt said such an infrastructure puts TCNJ on par with highly selective private liberal arts institutions like Colgate and Wesleyan, as well as many doctoral-level institutions, where the tuition runs $15,000 to $20,000 more per year than at TCNJ.<\/p>\n

Another key to the department\u2019s success has been the hiring of faculty members who fully embrace the teacher-scholar model, especially the high-impact practice of engaging undergraduates in collaborative research experiences, Hunt said. \u201cIt\u2019s the model we ourselves were \u2018raised on.\u2019\u201d In turn, those collaborations have led to record numbers of TCNJ chemistry students presenting at international conferences.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a win-win situation both Hunt and Jeffrey Osborn<\/strong>, dean of the School of Science, said. TCNJ\u2019s chemistry majors get to share their research and engage with academic, industrial, and government scientists from around the world. And such exposure benefits the chemistry department\u2019s high placement rate for its graduates with respect to graduate schools (63 percent of graduating seniors), medical schools (95 percent of applicants), and overall employment\/advanced study (99 percent of graduating seniors).<\/p>\n

\u201cOur chemistry department has worked hard to build a program and culture that is squarely focused on academic excellence. Our students, faculty, and staff have achieved phenomenal outcomes, and, while celebrating their successes, the department is regularly engaged in conversation about continuous improvement and has set high aspirations for itself,\u201d Osborn said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue to make the strategic investments needed to help sustain chemistry\u2019s extraordinary trajectory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photos (c) Don Hamerman<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The department ranks in the top four percent of programs nationally in graduation of ACS-certified bachelor\u2019s degree chemistry graduates, and is the top producer of ACS-certified bachelor\u2019s degree chemistry graduates in New Jersey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":8546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-campus","category-winter-2013"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}