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Chemistry

Your knowledge of chemical principles will become second nature as you study chemistry with us. Our curriculum provides you with a strong foundational knowledge and plenty of hands-on opportunities to apply scientific reasoning to increasingly complex problems—perfectly preparing you for a career or graduate studies in chemistry. You’ll progress through the coursework and regular labs, culminating in a capstone project that allows you to engage in original research.

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Overview

What Sets Principia College Apart?

You’ll find our small, close-knit community of educators and learners a huge asset in your quest to master the basic principles of chemistry and prepare for your future career or graduate training. With four well-equipped, modern laboratories all housed in the Science Center, you’ll find that help and consultation with faculty and fellow students is always in easy reach. What else makes us different?

  • Our 6:1 student-to-faculty ratio gives you invaluable access to faculty.
  • We’ve developed exciting internship opportunities with a variety of companies and organizations, including Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium, Coca-Cola, Chevron, and Colgate-Palmolive.
  • You’ll be prepared to continue your education at some of the top graduate schools in the country.
  • You’ll have plenty of hands-on learning opportunities—tracking pollution levels in area rivers and streams, conducting experiments in the forensic lab, and using gas chromatography to discover how octane levels relate to the makeup of gasoline.
  • You can join our award-winning solar car team—building and racing in the U.S. and around the world (often beating teams from M.I.T. and larger research universities).
  • Department’s instrumentation:
    • Nuclear magnetic resonance
    • Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry
    • High-performance liquid chromatography
    • Raman spectroscopy
    • X-ray diffraction
    • UV-visible spectroscopy
    • Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
    • Electron paramagnetic spectroscopy
       

You’ll engage in original research and present your findings to the College community at the end of your senior year. Recent projects explored:

  • Bioremediation of diesel fuel in soil
  • Non-Newtonian fluid enhancement of Kevlar vests
  • Multi-step synthesis of chrysanthemic acid
  • Microplastics in the Mississippi River
  • Chocolate analysis for fat and carbohydrates
  • Isolation of oil from Jatropha seeds
  • Supercritical fluid extraction of eugenol oil from cloves

Learn about how Ava Lesko’s research assistantship and internship positioned her for her career as a chemist.

Meet Ava

Solar car outside

Read how Principia College students transform scientific knowledge into a solar-powered vehicle built to compete across America. Explore hands-on science.

After Principia

Some of our graduates continue their studies at top universities, like these:

  • Lehigh University
  • Saint Louis University
  • University of South Dakota
  • Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
  • Oregon State

Our graduates have also landed jobs in:

  • Research and management at chemical companies
  • Patent law 
  • Government laboratories such as the EPA, FDA, and USDA
  • Teaching high school or college
  • Working at cosmetic and soap companies

Learning Beyond Campus

Our study-abroad programs are open to all students, and you’re encouraged to apply to any abroad program that interests you—even if the abroad isn’t your primary area of study. Your passport to international learning starts here.

Principia College Study Abroad