This selective 2-year programme is taught wholly in English and embedded in an internationally leading research environment. The programme offers a great deal of freedom in topics and has a strong focus on research; students spend 50% of their time in research labs. It is organized along three main specializations:

› Advanced Materials
Much of the impact of chemistry on every-day live is through materials. Focus here is on the chemistry of functional materials, including aspects like material synthesis and self-assembly, supramolecular chemistry, structural characterization techniques and functional properties.

› Catalysis and Green Chemistry
Catalysis is the key technology in the development of green and sustainable chemical processes. This specialization focuses on different aspects of catalysis by enzymes as well as synthetic homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts and key industrially relevant transformations.

› Chemical Biology (also offers an honours programme)
This specialization studies biology and the processes of life using the tools of chemistry and deals with topics ranging from understanding how biochemistry works, to protein engineering and the engineering of biological systems.

› Science, Business and Policy
This specialisation focuses on the interface between Chemistry and Business and Policy emphasizing the societal aspects of Science. You will learn to implement your chemistry knowledge in companies and policy organisations.

The Chemistry research project takes place in a research group within or across one of these specialisations. These groups are associated with three main research institutes that focus on chemistry: the Stratingh Institute for Chemistry, the Zernike Institute of Advanced Materials and the Groningen Biomolecular Science & Biotechnology Institute. The programme also offers the opportunity to do research in a lab abroad or in industry.

Job prospects

This degree programme in Chemistry is primarily meant for students who want to become researchers or research managers. It also provides an excellent preparation for a PhD project, either in Groningen or elsewhere. Groningen students have found jobs all over Europe and beyond in major companies, including DSM, Akzo Nobel, Corus, ASML or Philips.

In addition, many chemists who are trained as researchers find jobs that are less research-oriented. This is because the programme also pays attention to communication skills, teamwork, presentation techniques and IT skills. During their training as researchers in chemistry, students develop general competences that make them highly versatile and widely employable, so Groningen chemistry graduates can be found in consulting agencies, commercial functions, product research and development, product management or teaching.

Job examples

• PhD research project
• Work for a major multinational such as Akzo Nobel or Philps
• Consulting agencies
• Product management or commercial positions