Department of Chemistry

A college education involves more than in-class learning. By conducting research side-by-side with your professors, you’ll gain invaluable hands-on experience. Find out more about our state-of-the-art laboratories, the technology and instrumentation available to you, and how your research experience will bring your chemistry education to life here.

A chemistry degree prepares you for unlimited career potential. It transports you from the world of mundane jobs into careers filled with exploration and innovation. Chemists have used their degrees to create novel materials and make breakthroughs in medicine, sustainability, nutrition, energy, and environmental science. You could solve crimes as a forensics specialist, restore ancient artifacts as a museum conservator, hunt down disease as a pathologist, protect the environment as a toxicologist or create new fuels and batteries as an inventor. Explore more careers here.

Our chemistry labs in the new Sinegal Center for Science and Innovation provide invaluable experience doing the cutting-edge work of practicing, professional chemists. At many universities, lab courses include standard, age-old experiments with very few avenues for discovery. At Seattle University, we don’t believe in routine all of your lab experiences will be authentic. You will learn from your professors asking you forward thinking questions (inquiry-based learning) or alongside your professors as you answer questions and solve problems together (discovery-based learning).

Your modern education at Seattle University is reinforced by the instruments you will use. Learn more about the state-of-the-art scientific instruments available to chemistry students here.

The Department of Chemistry has designed our curriculum to best benefit you, both as a person and as a future professional. Click here to see the foundational knowledge, hands-on scientific skills and practices, and interpersonal dynamics you will develop as you progress through your degree.

Chemists transform science into service. Chemistry majors save lives as medical doctors, solve crimes as forensic investigators, develop new materials and medicines as chemical researchers, protect the planet as environmental scientists and offer options for a better, more sustainable future.

Our Jesuit values mean we see the world through a global, justice-focused lens. Our strong commitment to diversity and small class sizes help create a forward-thinking, close-knit community where everyone can feel at home—and go on to thrive in a global workforce.