UWA is ranked first in Australia for Agricultural Sciences, Biological Sciences, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, and Marine/Ocean Engineering by the Academic Ranking of World Universities in 2018. We boast staff who are among the world’s leading teachers and researchers. Their research will form an integral part of your learning experience.

Chemistry

Do you want to be part of the major advances that are being made in medicine, nanotechnology, new materials and the environment? A major in Chemistry will allow you to develop an understanding of the mechanisms, reactions and processes that occur at the molecular level. You will study the elements that make up all matter, and how they interact with each other to construct living organisms, transmit power from the sun, produce minerals and fuel environmental processes. To complement your lectures from renowned experts in their various fields, you will have the chance to discuss, apply and expand on the theory of your unit in weekly practical laboratory classes. The Bayliss Building in the School of Molecular Sciences is equipped with excellent laboratory facilities for undergraduate teaching. Its teaching and research laboratories are supported by state-of-the-art instrumentation for the important methods of structure determination (nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), X-ray crystallography and mass spectrometry), as well as a wide variety of complementary techniques.

Chemistry graduates will be in demand over the next decade in chemical manufacturing and processing industries such as pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, fine chemicals, metals, polymers, electricity, steel, mining and petroleum. Career opportunities can be found in analytical and quality control laboratories as environmental and analytical or forensic chemists, in universities, scientific institutes, government or private sector laboratories as research chemists, and in secondary or tertiary institutions as teachers. Diverse roles in private companies, local councils, state and federal government regulatory authorities and hospitals are other possibilities.