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Chemistry at IIT in Chicago
As an undergraduate chemistry major, you face an important career decision as graduation day approaches; namely, what to do next. Industrial Employment? Graduate School? Teaching? Vice President in your father's chemical company? Or if graduation day is behind you, perhaps you find yourself with limited opportunities and are asking similar questions.Perhaps you'd like to get started in one or more of those areas and yet keep your options open so that as you gain experience you'll be able to adjust your career goals without major disruptions. IIT's Chemistry Department provides you with that opportunity. First, the IIT Chemistry Department has a first-rate faculty doing research in frontier areas of chemistry and making use of important recent technologies, such as computers, lasers, magnetic resonance, and artifical membranes. Thus you are assured of an education today that will prepare you to be an effective practicing chemist tomorrow. 
Second, IIT is an Institute of Technology. Today the large and growing impact of technology on society is well recognized. IIT provides not only strong academic programs in the full spectrum of the science and engineering disciplines but also has a school of management and a school of law. As a result, you can develop a personalized academic program for professional development, drawing on a diverse and socially relevant array of educational resources. The IIT Department of Chemistry has deliberately defined a variety of advanced degree programs to give you a wide choice of options. The one thing that our graduate program is NOT is a cloning operation designed to produce carbon copies of its own faculty!
Third, IIT is in Chicago. That means you have available a wide range of chemistry-based industries that incorporate the full complement of industrial opportunities; in fact over 10% of the major U.S. employers of chemists and chemical engineers are in the Chicago area. Focusing on research, there is Argonne National Laboratory. And the Enrico Fermi National Laboratory. And the IIT Research Institute. And Bell Labs. And AMOCO Research Center. And Corn Products Moffett Technical Center. And Inland Steel Research Center. And many more. Cooperation between IIT and the local industrial and national laboratories has traditionally been strong and recently was enhanced by IIT's own interactive four-channel educational television network whereby students at remote sites can enroll in IIT's regularly scheduled upper division and graduate courses.
Thus you can choose, realistically, from among these options: full-time graduate work at IIT; parttime graduate work with full-time employment; a cooperative program where you alternate between full-time graduate work and full-time employment; and/or the possibility of thesis research with two coadvisors, one at I IT and one at another research site. Furthermore, if you remain in Chicago, you can conveniently continue your professional development after you have acquired an advanced degree.This brochure tells you about the following in more detail:
Note that following each professor's name is his telephone number. Feel free to call and chat. Or better yet, visit IIT if that is feasible for you. We'll put you up for a night and arrange for you to meet faculty and students. It is not really possible to bring together in a few documents the answers to all your questions. We would be happy to respond to any specific questions you might have. You owe it to yourself to make an informed decision about what to do next. Let us help you. |
