The School of Chemistry at the University of KwaZulu-Natal is the largest chemistry department in South Africa and is one of the leading centres of research in chemistry in Africa. The School is located across two centres: Westville and Pietermaritzburg. Both centres offer both postgraduate and undergraduate studies. The centre at Pietermaritzburg will celebrate it centennial in 2010.
Undergraduate Teaching
We teach a very large number of undergraduate students each year (~2000 first years), mostly as services courses for other disciplines. Our third year classes comprise of about 110 students (70 Westville and 40 Pietermaritzburg) studying for a BSc with Chemistry as a major. Across both centres we typically have 30 students studying for Honours in Chemistry each year. We believe that our students are given a first class education in applied Chemistry through the focussed programmes Applied Chemistry and Chemical Technology.
Postgraduate Teaching
We have a large postgraduate School; 60 MSc and 30 PhD students. In 2006 we moved into a new building at Westville, equipped with outstanding research and teaching facilities. The laboratories at Pietermaritzburg underwent an extensive refurbishment programme with a complete renewal of the ventilation system including new fume-cupboards.
The School is equipped with an extensive range of modern instrumentation and is probably the best equipped centre on the African continent. The instrumentation includes 4 NMR spectrometers (including 600 MHz with solids probe), a wide range of chromatographic equipment including GC-MS, LC-MS and MALDI TOF. We also have an extensive range of equipment for inorganic analysis including single crystal and powder diffraction X-ray equipment as well as a range of atomic and molecular spectroscopic instruments.
Research undertaken within the School encompasses a wide variety of fields, ranging from synthetic chemistry (organic, inorganic and organometallic), nanoparticles, biosensors, medicinal and natural products, photochemistry, catalysis, and environmental research through to computational modelling. In addition, the School maintains strong interdisciplinary ties with other UKZN research programs, including the biological and physical sciences, as well as engineering, agriculture, medicine, and health disciplines.
We invite you to browse our website to learn more about our exciting research. We welcome inquiries from students interested in pursuing studies in our undergraduate and postgraduate programs. | 
Chemistry Westville Campus
Chemistry Pietermaritzburg Campus
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