Introduction to the Chemistry course

“Chemistry” is the academic field that examines the changes and properties of material at the atomic and molecular level. Chemistry research encompasses all materials that exist, both those in the natural world and those created artificially. Chemistry has developed on the foundation of measurements used in physics and analysis used in mathematics. In addition to students with an interest in chemistry, we also welcome students skilled at physics and mathematics to take our examination.

Instructors in the Chemistry Course belong to one of six fields of education and research: material analysis chemistry, biological chemistry, material composition chemistry, solids chemistry, functional organic chemistry, catalytic chemistry and reactive organic chemistry. We conduct a variety of research, from analytic chemistry that aims to realize a cleaner environment and development of new elements useful for human lifestyles and purifying the environment, to reactions that efficiently create high value materials from low value materials and synthesis of organic compounds with pharmacological properties. We educate students with the objective of cultivating graduates that can serve society as experts in chemistry.

Recent years have seen the rapid development of “molecular biology”, which looks at the activities of living organisms as changes in the molecules of which they are composed. In order to educate graduates to fit this new research field, we have been recruiting students as the “Department of Biology and Chemistry” since 2006. We educate students who, by learning the fundamentals of both Chemistry and Biology, can conduct research such as the synthesis of effective pharmaceutical compounds, and the development of methods and chemical reagents for use in understanding the activity of molecules that compose living organisms.