Chemistry Research and Study Opportunities

Thousands of study and academic opportunities in Chemistry are available internationally. Conferences and summer schools in Chemistry are organized regularly in the best academic centers of the world. The majority of universities and many foundations also offer BA, MA, and Ph.D. programs in Chemistry as wells as postdoctoral research grants, awards, and fellowships. Below you will find the updated list of international opportunities available in Chemistry.

Chemistry Scholarships

Chemistry Fellowships

Chemistry Conferences

Chemistry relevant accounts on Twitter

What is Chemistry?

Everything that physically exists in reality and all the reactions and interactions between the existing objects is the study area of chemistry. 

Humans also interact with chemistry while performing simple everyday activities like cooking, cleaning, using medicine, etc. Thanks to Chemistry, we have learned how to combine and utilize the features of different matters. Many chemical elements existing independently do not have a practical implementation, and only by studying their structures and the reactions they can undergo, humans extract benefits from them. 

So, chemistry explores all the matters, everything that has a mass and occupies space. This definition also includes matters that we can’t touch or see, such as air. The purpose of chemistry is to understand what transformations chemical elements can undergo, what valuable features they can extract from that transformations, and how that features can be applied to improve different spheres of life. Studying the atomic structures of those elements is the method of achieving Chemistry’s main purpose. 

Have you come across the term “alchemy”? It’s how the early Chemistry was called before the 1700s. Alchemy was mainly studied in China, Arabia, Egypt, and Europe and had a more mystical approach to the chemistry phenomena, rather than academic or scientific. Yet, many of their achievements of that period later found their adaptation in modern Chemistry. For example, alchemists used symbols to represent different substances they had seen in the environment. This is the early version of Mendeleev’s table of elements. Also, alchemists invented the technology to transfer metals into gold. The period of alchemy was interrupted with the studies of modern chemistry, which started around 1600-1700s. 

After that, Chemistry started to develop to the current advanced level that Chemists inherited today. The major Chemistry breakthroughs of the 20th century were studying living organisms and develop interpretations of diseases at the molecular level. Chemistry focused on single tiny elements like atoms, and their combination, DNA.

 Main branches of Chemistry

Chemistry development rates have been accelerated recently due to which branches like Nuclear Chemistry, Polymer Chemistry, Bioinorganic Chemistry, and others have developed. However, the main leading directions in Chemistry, which are also included in the majority of academic directions, include the following:

Organic Chemistry

Organic chemistry studies the atomic and molecular structures of living organisms. Therefore, one can state organic chemistry is the most live area of chemistry studies. The main atoms of organic chemistry studies include hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon. By exploring what kind of molecules all the human and other living organisms need for survival, organic chemists study how to synthesize those atoms and create new chemical structures. For example, drugs, flavorings, and similar systems are created due to the organic chemistry findings. 

Analytical Chemistry

Analytical chemistry watches what happens with the materials of certain masses, documents, and analyzes the gathered information to form practical advice out of it. For example, analytical chemists can observe how different chemical elements perform in certain food products. Based on that, they invent new ways of cooking the food tastier or making its perseverance longer and easier. 

Physical Chemistry

Physical chemists bring close two very interrelated spheres of chemistry and physics. Physical chemistry explores chemical reactions in the context of physics rules. For example, specialists focus on kinetics, spectroscopy, quantum mechanics, etc. They explore what physical interactions happen within the substance’s atoms, resulting in chemical transformations. 

Inorganic Chemistry

Inorganic chemistry studies non-living substances such as minerals and metals to create practical use such as fertilizers, sunscreens, etc. Traditionally, inorganic chemistry was considered to deal with any material that does not contain carbon. However, there are carbon-containing elements that are widely used in inorganic chemistry. Those elements are organometallic complexes. That’s why there is a similar branch included in inorganic chemistry as well. 

Biochemistry

Biochemistry explores biological processes that occur in chemistry. Biochemistry usually prepares professionals who succeed in medicine and explores areas like regenerative medicine, infectious diseases, organ transplantation, etc. Also, the significant achievement of biochemistry is that it helped identify many diseases in the human body and consequently find their cures. 

Catalysis

Catalysis is the element that accelerates the chemical reaction but is not itself consumed. For example, dirty water can become clean water for human consumption with the help of a catalysis element. As this significantly accelerates processes and saves resources, researchers worldwide focus on what areas the catalysis can be used. 

Chemistry Research opportunities

You have just read the main research directions of Chemistry in the above paragraph. However, in parallel to those traditional directions, there are plenty of new Chemistry variations mainly related to technological innovations. For example, there are nanotechnology, computational chemistry, combinatorial chemistry, etc., which are widely offered in educational institutions as research areas. 

Applied chemistry researchers perform one of the most critical missions to project theoretical chemistry findings in practical life to improve it. 

In acknowledgment of Chemistry’s massive impact on human life, it’s one of the spheres for which there is a Nobel prize. Up to 2020, 186 brilliant minds in Chemistry became the Laureates of the field. Besides, there are Awards from the American Chemical Society and others who praise the researchers’ achievements in the essential theoretical and applied chemistry. We hope this section of ARMACAD will help you become one of the award receivers in the field of Chemistry.