Chemistry is called the central science because it impinges on almost every conceivable form of research activity from biology through physics to astronomy. Accordingly, mastery of the discipline is crucial to developments in almost all aspects of science. Currently, the RSC accommodates more than twenty leading researchers in the field, most of whom are involved in our undergraduate teaching program while also supervising groups of postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows/researchers carrying out cutting-edge studies in their chosen areas of the discipline. The research-intensive nature of our curriculum allows undergraduates to interact with the academic staff and their research groups at a relatively early stage in their degree programs, thus enabling them to get a strong sense of “project work” within as little as a year after commencing studies at the ANU.

I encourage you to investigate our website so that you can develop an understanding of the manifold possibilities for study within the vast discipline of chemistry. The diversity of the research interests of our staff will allow you to explore and contribute to one or more of the many fascinating and fundamental challenges that are capable of being addressed through studying the chemical sciences. These challenges include:

• understanding the chemistry of living systems in detail
• understanding and controlling how molecules react – over all time scales and the full range of molecular size
• learning how to design and produce new substances, materials and molecular devices with properties that can be predicted, tailored and tuned before production
• developing unlimited and inexpensive energy (with new ways of energy generation, storage and transportation) to pave the way to a truly sustainable future
• developing medicines and therapies that can cure currently untreatable diseases
• designing and developing self-optimising chemical systems
• developing self-assembly as a useful approach to the synthesis and manufacturing of complex systems and materials
• learning to synthesise and manufacture any new substance that can have scientific or practical interest, using compact synthetic schemes and processes with high selectivity for the desired product, and with low energy consumption and benign environmental effects in the process.1

The RSC has a remarkable and diverse history. The School was officially opened in 1967. Professor Arthur Birch, of Birch reduction fame, served as the foundation Dean of Chemistry. He was ably assisted, and then succeeded, by Professor David Craig, an internationally renowned theoretical chemist. The profound impact of the research carried out by members of the RSC in the intervening period has resulted in the election of many of our staff to the Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science and the Royal Society (London). Indeed, the RSC has had more of its staff elected to these two learned societies that any other Chemistry Department or School in Australia. The former Department of Chemistry (DoC) has an even longer history, having been established in 1959 and headed by Professor Arthur Hambly during its first eight years of operation. While the DoC had a major focus on delivering an undergraduate program in chemistry, many of its staff ran especially vigorous research programs and also achieved international prominence as a result.

On 1 January 2009 the RSC merged with the DoC and so the new Research School of Chemistry was born. The combining of the strengths of the two progenitors has resulted in a unique entity that offers the very best opportunities for studying chemistry at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The recent announcement by the Australian Federal Government2 of the allocation of $90,000,000 for the creation of a new chemical sciences hub at the ANU means that the RSC will move into purpose-built and state-of-the-art laboratories by mid-2013. Given this, and the already excellent infrastructure and instrumental support provided to all the chemists at the ANU, our facilities offer the very best possible environment for studying chemistry in all its remarkable forms.

Please browse on!

Professor Martin G. Banwell

Director, Research School of Chemistry

Notes:
1. See The Future of U.S. Chemistry Research – Benchmarks and Challenges, The National Academies Press, Washington D.C., 2007.
2. See http://www.budget.gov.au/2009-10/content/bp2/html/bp2_expense-11.htm