Welcome to the
Chemistry Department
Welcome to the Chemistry Department. We currently number 10 faculty and 4 laboratory support staff. You will find specific information for each member of the chemistry faculty by following the link to Faculty. However, a few remarks about the group as a whole and our activities are in order …
The Chemistry Department enjoys two teaching roles within The Petroleum Institute. Firstly we provide the fundamental understanding and skills that all students at the PI need for their studies, whether they continue to a Bachelor degree in a branch of engineering or in petroleum geosciences. The two Freshman level General Chemistry courses CHEM 131 and CHEM 181 serve to provide this grounding in chemistry; a subject that is frequently referred to as “the central science”. Both courses are integrated theory and laboratory courses, because we believe that students develop their understanding in chemistry not only through the theory part of the course but also during the laboratory experiments that they carry out themselves. Depending on the Degree Major of the student, he or she will either take one or two semesters of General Chemistry.
Our second teaching role is to teach chemistry and chemistry-related courses that students will take in their Sophomore through Senior Years as part of their specific degree program. Thus, Chemistry Faculty teach Organic Chemistry (CHEM 201 and CHEM 241) and Physical Chemistry (CHEM 301) within the Chemical Engineering Program. Degree courses in Corrosion, Polymer Science & Engineering and Interfacial Science are also taught by members of the Chemistry Department, and we are currently developing new courses with other Engineering Programs.
In a university like The Petroleum Institute, finding a successful balance between excellent undergraduate education and academic research is very important, particularly considering our close links with ADNOC and our other sponsors from the Oil & Gas sector. Therefore you will notice in the following pages that a number of the Chemistry faculty and staff have active interests in research, as well as in academic scholarship.
