It is my pleasure to welcome you, on behalf of all current and past members of the Department, to the official website of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Windsor (UWindsor).
This is an exciting time to be a part of our community with new faculty, undergraduate and graduate programs, and buildings and facilities either just begun or soon to come on-line. At the undergraduate level, we offer Honors programs in Biochemistry, Chemistry, and Chemistry-with-Physics and offer a Biochemistry - Health and Biomedical Stream for those who are considering continuing on to graduate level Professional programs. In addition, we now have a “with co-op” option for a range of our undergraduate programs in which students can elect to integrate their academic studies with an industrial placement which can last from 8 to 16 months. Here at UWindsor and in our Department in particular, we recognise that one of the best approaches to learning as well as gaining the skills required of the modern workforce is through experiential learning and internships. Consequently, the department offers many undergraduate students the opportunity to engage in hands-on research in the labs of our faculty through, for instance, the Outstanding Scholars program or NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRA's), or Internships. For some of these research experiences students can gain course credit or perhaps even take partake in a study abroad experience through the Faculty of Science's Global Perspectives of Science (GPS) opportunities.
At the graduate level, in addition to the research-focused Master's and Doctoral program we now also offer two course-based Master's programs aimed to develop advanced level skills sets; for the last 3 years our Masters in Medical Biotechnology (MMB) has had full enrolment and we have doubled our numbers in this program to meet demand.
In Fall 2018, we opened the new $30 million Science Research and Innovation Facility (SRIF). This new facility brings together researchers from across our campus whose focus is on advanced materials (e.g., nanotechnology and biometrics), medical biophysics, and translational health (translating from lab discoveries to practical applications). This state-of-the-art building has been designed and built with the express goal to foster the excellent research carried out in our department and others here at UWindsor, and to facilitate interactions and collaborations between research groups and industry. This will also enable our undergraduate and graduate students to engage in cutting-edge multi-disciplinary research; further enhancing their career readiness.
Our department also actively participates in numerous international activities either through the above GPS courses, or for instance the International Day of LGBT+ People in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), and International Day of Women in STEM. Throughout 2019, we actively partook in the UN's declared International Year of the Periodic Table through a variety of activities that highlight the importance of Science in tackling major challenges (including in health and new materials) facing Canada and the world.
Please take a moment to check out our website, the research interests of our faculty, and the course and learning opportunities available to undergraduate and/or graduate students. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact either myself (chembiohead@uwindsor.ca) or, for graduate student enquiries, our graduate secretary (chembio@uwindsor.ca).
Best regards,
James
Head of the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry