Chemistry

The RCSI Department of Chemistry was founded in 1828 when Prof. James Apjohn FRS, was appointed as the RCSI Professor of Chemistry. This marked the foundation of the first successful chemistry teaching and research programmes in Ireland.

Since that time, the department has played a central role in the advancement of chemical education and research at RCSI, at its interfaces with the medical, biological and health sciences. The department today houses a broad spectrum of scientific expertise, in state-of-the-art facilities, with innovative research programmes fuelling a thriving community of undergraduate, doctoral and postdoctoral researchers.

Watch a video introduction to the Department of Chemistry

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Our department provides an integrated Undergraduate chemistry education in the Schools of Medicine, Physiotherapy and Pharmacy. The principles of chemistry are fundamentally embedded in each of these disciplines and are at the heart of invention and understanding within the health sciences. Chemistry provides the answers to the how and why questions encountered continuously in the health science disciplines.

Our educational goal is to train you how to move confidently between the molecular, biological and medical scientific worlds. Our academic staff offer transformative learning experiences and experiential research projects for undergraduate students during the summer months. We offer a wide choice of research topics through which students can enrol in structured PhD and MSc degrees.

Our multidisciplinary department boasts modern instrumentation within new synthetic, polymer and analytical laboratories in addition to an automated peptide synthesis laboratory, cell culture and fluorescence microscopy laboratories. Thriving translational research in all areas of chemistry and chemical-biology provides an exciting setting to successfully undertake postgraduate and postdoctoral research, we currently have 18 postgraduate scholars undertaking PhDs within the department. The department promotes strong cross-disciplinary collaborations enabling an optimal research environment and support network for transformative research.

Key areas of expertise with the department are:

  • Synthesis and flow micro-reactors underpinning drug discovery
  • Fluorescence-guided surgery
  • Polymer science and functional biomaterials
  • Fluorescent imaging tools for chemical biology
  • Peptide-based antibiotic agents and as investigational tools for the life sciences
  • Synthesis and pharmacological evaluation of metal-based therapeutics
  • Nano-medicines, exosomes and drug delivery systems
  • Interactions between nanomaterials and living systems
  • Herbal medicines and the regulation of herbal medicinal products

Professor/Chair of Department

Professors

Associate Professor

Senior Lecturers

Emeritus Professor

  • Kevin Nolan

Research Lecturer

  • Dan Wu

Postdoctoral Researchers

  • Abuelmagd Ahmed
  • Anais Bourges
  • Thomas Leigh
  • Bo Li
  • Joshua McLean
  • Mahmoud Soliman
  • Asia Saorin