Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry - Polymer Chemistry

University of Maine

Welcome to the Department of Chemistry at the University of Maine. We are proud to be the only university in the State of Maine to offer Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in chemistry. Our faculty and graduate students are actively engaged in research that spans a broad range of chemistry. The smaller size of research groups in our department allows for a high degree of student-faculty interaction. Many groups have interdisciplinary research projects that provide opportunities for collaboration with engineers, materials scientists, biological scientists or disciplinary based education researchers.The majority of our graduate students are enrolled in the Ph.D. program and all students are typically supported as teaching assistants in their first year. Research assistantships are also available, usually starting in the second year. All students in good standing are guaranteed financial support through the completion of their degrees.Polymer ChemistryPolymer chemistry is the study of the synthesis of new polymeric materials and how molecular structure affects their macroscopic properties for applications from packaging to biomedical materials. Researchers explore new chemistries for polymerization, new sustainable polymers, and how to control polymer molecular architecture.