Focus on your future

Chemistry News

Image of top of the arch in the west entrance to Noyes with flower pot in the foreground
Two postdoctoral researchers awarded the Anuj Khandelwal Memorial Travel Award
Two postdoctoral researchers in the Department of Chemistry have been awarded the 2025 Anuj Khandelwal Memorial Travel Award: Dr. Chieh-Kai Chan, a postdoctoral researcher in Martin D. Burke’s group, and Dr. Josseline Ramos Figueroa, a postdoctoral researcher in Wilfred van der Donk’s group. The...
Xiaolin Liu holds a poster of her winning science research image
Chemistry postdoctoral researcher wins back-to-back Science Image Challenge titles
For the second consecutive year, Xiaolin Liu, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemistry, submitted a science image that has been selected the winner of the Main Category in the School of Chemical Sciences Image Challenge.  Liu conducts research in chemistry professor...
Side by side headshots of Charles Schroeder and Jeffrey Moore
Charles Schroeder, Jeffrey Moore, and collaborators receive $1.8 M NSF grant to develop self-replicating materials
Abiotic, or nonliving, self-replicating materials are often a topic of science fiction — but researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are working to synthetize materials that self-replicate, the same way...
Head shot of Mikael Backlund on a blue background
Mikael Backlund receives NSF CAREER Award for proposal exploring spectroscopy and quantum information
Mikael Backlund, assistant professor of chemistry, has received a 2025 National Science Foundation CAREER Award for a research proposal combining theory and experiments to determine the quantum information limits of single-molecule spectroscopy which could lead to advancements in the areas of...
Image of the cover of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry with a portrait of John A. Katzenellenbogen.
John A. Katzenellenbogen celebrated in special issue of Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
A special issue of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry was issued on Feb. 27, 2025, celebrating Illinois chemistry Prof. John A. Katzenellenbogen and his 55-year career exploring the interface among chemistry, biology, and medicine. Read the...

Research Areas in Chemistry

chemists discussing their science

Analytical Chemistry
chemist adding solution to test tube

Chemical Biology
Chemists looking at a thin tube

Inorganic Chemistry
chemist looking at equipment controls

Materials Chemistry
Chemist in the lab working with petrie dish

Organic Chemistry
Three chemists in lab using dropper to fill vial

Physical Chemistry

Calendar

View all events

Looking for Chemistry merchandise?

Purchase Department of Chemistry apparel. Featured items include shirts, outerwear, hats, and more.

Shop now
Howard Malmstadt

Spotlight: Malmstadt, Howard (1922-2003)

Howard Vincent Malmstadt, faculty of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois from 1951 to 1981, was widely considered the father of modern electronic and computerized instrumentation in chemistry. Malmstadt was born in Marinette, Wisconsin, on February 17, 1922. He received his BS degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1943, carrying out undergraduate research in organic chemistry under Professor A. Wilds. Upon graduation, he was commissioned as an ensign in the US Navy and attended naval electronics and radar schools at Princeton, MIT, Bell Labs, San Diego Fleet...