Sept. 22, 2010

Contact:
Jeremy Craig, 404-413-1357
University Relations

ATLANTA —The American Chemical Society has given high rankings to Georgia State University’s Master of Science in chemistry program, placing GSU in the top rankings among number of master’s graduates produced.

Georgia State ranked ninth for 2008-'09, and came in first in the southeastern United States. The numbers were published recently in Chemical & Engineering News.

“GSU’s chemistry master’s degree is the degree of choice of many students who wish to work in the field and remain in the metropolitan Atlanta area,” said Al Baumstark, chair of the Department of Chemistry. “This yields major economic benefits in the state, and is a reflection of the quality of the program.”

Chemistry graduates have gone on to a diverse range of companies and institutions, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the U.S. Environmental Protection agency, to companies such as Georgia Pacific.

“In the master’s program, we have both traditional and non-traditional students, and part of the success in the program is the vibrant job market offering a wide array of opportunities in the metropolitan Atlanta area,” said Markus Germann, associate graduate director and professor of chemistry.

Chemistry students work alongside researchers who are investigating multiple, critical topics, ranging from the molecular basis of diseases like HIV/AIDS, to investigating new ways to diagnose and treat diseases like cancer.

Graduate program director Giovanni Gadda said the program’s ranking additionally reflects excellence in research.

“The quality of this program is not only reflected in the official statistics from the ACS, but in the increasing numbers of peer-reviewed publications of our students and their attendance in regional, national, and international congresses,” said Gadda, associate professor of chemistry.

Georgia State also has one of the largest undergraduate programs in the Southeast, with nearly 500 undergrads pursuing degrees focused on biochemistry or physical chemistry.