BS in Chemistry

What is a Chemistry Degree?

If you want to explore the mysteries of Alzheimer’s disease, aid in the development of life-sustaining pharmaceuticals, or discover new applications of nanotechnology, a chemistry degree offers the knowledge and experience you need.

While there are chemistry degree choices that allow you to specialize your knowledge and career paths such as biochemistry or premedical chemistry, a chemistry degree also offers you a wide range of career options and earnings potential. Your career choices include jobs in materials science, research, and development, forensics, consumer products, government policy, or food chemistry. Because chemistry is such a versatile science, it is easy to find interesting career opportunities in any industrial, educational, scientific, or government field.

Because chemistry is so fundamental to our world, it is often referred to as the central science that joins together physics and mathematics, biology and medicine, earth sciences, and the environment. Students with a BS in chemistry are well prepared to be part of a career field that never seems to lack job opportunities.

How Will a Chemistry Degree Prepare Me for the Future?

Florida Tech’s range of chemistry internships and study in the field of chemistry make the university an attractive option for anyone interested in a chemistry career.

Peerless Study and Internship Opportunities

Chemistry internships are a valuable part of the Florida Tech experience. By working hands-on using the tools and techniques used by professional chemists, our students gather valuable knowledge that extends beyond the classroom. Some of the organizations that provide chemistry internships to our students include:

• NASA
• Oak Ridge National Lab
• Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
• Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
• Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute

Through chemistry internships provided by these and many other companies, Florida Tech students forge connections that eventually lead to careers after college.

Participate in Cutting-Edge Faculty-Led Research

All undergraduates participate in research, often in both the classroom and chemistry internships. Many students join cutting-edge faculty research teams, working alongside experienced professors to conduct original research. Students build valuable skills and a highly competitive resume that equips them for future chemistry jobs. Some of the research topics studied by our faculty include:

• Alzheimer’s research
• Pharmaceutical development
• Polyurethane foams for fireproofing and energy absorption
• Hydrogen as an alternative energy source
• Chronic inflammatory diseases
• Nanotechnology

In addition to faculty-led research, all students present papers at American Chemical Society meetings. Many chemistry students publish their papers in scientific journals. These publications allow our students to build a portfolio to present to potential employers for chemistry internships and careers. Research programs that are unique to Florida Tech are medical chemistry, bioorganic chemistry, polymer chemistry, and space-related chemistry. Research is a great way for students to gain experience working with scientific instrumentation, learn valuable laboratory skills, and learn how chemical research is really done.

It All Started With 37 Cents

Florida Tech was founded in 1958 as "Brevard Engineering College." It all started as an idea in the mind of Jerome P. Keuper, a visionary physicist working at Cape Canaveral.

As university lore would have it, Keuper expressed his desire to create a scientific and technological university to a friend over drinks at a local pub. Overhearing the conversation, a fellow patron pushed 37 cents in change across the bar and said, “There’s your first donation, Jerry. Now, go and build that college.”

So, Keuper did. And what started with 37 cents as a night school for the early “missilemen” of the U.S. space program is now a comprehensive national research university recognized worldwide for excellence in preparing students for careers of the future.

Core Values

• Research for the Benefit of All Humankind
• Education for a Lifetime of Success
• Global Citizenship for a Better World

Mission Statement

Florida Institute of Technology’s mission is to provide high-quality education to a culturally diverse student body in order to prepare students for entering the global workforce, seeking higher-education opportunities, and serving within their communities. The university also seeks to expand knowledge through basic and applied research and to serve the diverse economic, cultural, and societal needs of our local, state, national and international constituencies.

In support of this mission, we are committed to:

• Promoting student development by fostering and sustaining a productive institutional culture of assessment that leads to the continuous improvement of academic and administrative programs
• Developing an organizational culture that values and encourages intellectual curiosity, a sense of belonging and shared purpose among faculty, students, and staff, and the pursuit of excellence in all endeavors
• Recruiting and developing excellent faculty to become leaders in their respective fields and internationally recognized scholars
• Achieving recognition as an effective, innovative, technology-focused educational and research institution
• Recruiting and retaining an excellent, highly select, and culturally diverse student body
• Continually improving the quality of campus life for all members of the university community
• Providing personal and career growth opportunities for both traditional and nontraditional students and members of the faculty and staff
• Securing and maintaining professional accreditation for all appropriate programs

We Are Florida Tech

What we are is a private, coeducational, residential, research-intensive, doctoral-granting university located in Melbourne on Florida’s sunny “Space Coast.” But who we are is so much more. We are a community of researchers, scholars, and learners hailing from all around the world. We are engineers, aviators, innovators, leaders, educators, athletes, and astronauts. We have the brains of rocket scientists and the hearts of Panthers. We are Florida Tech.

We Are Relentless

Florida Tech is a university of leaders and learners—a diverse community of students, staff, faculty, and alumni who are united in the relentless pursuit of greatness.

We Are International

Students from more than 90 countries worldwide choose to live and learn at Florida Tech, making us a truly global university. When we say #YouAreWelcomeHere, we mean it.

We Create The Future

One of the primary tenets of Florida Tech’s mission is advancing science and technology for the benefit of Earth and all of its inhabitants. So, that’s what we do.

We Have Panther Pride

You may feel it the first time you visit the campus, the day you graduate, or at some point in between. But when you do, you’ll see that Panther Pride is more than school spirit. It’s a family.

We Make Connections

Florida Tech is proud to be part of the Brevard County community and welcomes its neighbors to explore the many personal, professional, corporate, and cultural opportunities we have to offer.

We Are STEM

There's a reason Florida Tech is known as Florida's STEM University™. To put it simply: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math are in our DNA. This makes STEM a driving force behind who we are, what we do, and why we exist.