While pursuing an interest in chemistry or physics, you will work one-on-one with dedicated faculty advocates who provide hands-on instruction to help you solidify your interests, understand various concepts, develop analytical skills, and foster technological skills that are essential to pursuing a variety of careers after graduation.

Students utilize technologically up-to-date labs equipped with a variety of instrumentation:

• A nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer
• Gas chromatography-mass spectrometers (GCMS)
• High pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) systems
• Atomic absorption spectrometers (AAS)
• Infrared (IR) spectrometers
• A UV-visible spectrophotometer
• A synthesis microwave
• Ultrasound equipment

Special Programs

While on campus, students can also get involved in the chemistry student club, Gender Minorities in STEM club, the earth science club, and national scientific honor societies that will help them connect with other students with similar interests, make new friends, and gain leadership experience.

Career ready

The Franklin College Department of Chemistry and Physics prepares students to pursue careers in industries, academia, health professions, science-related public services, law and more.

The Department has a 98% job or graduate/professional school placement rate.

Students gain knowledge and professional skills through engaging courses, on-campus labs and research trainings, professional internships, and off-campus summer research opportunities — all of which prepare them to evaluate critically and become informed citizens.

Career possibilities include:

• Professional programs (pharmacy, medicine, physician assistant program, veterinary science, dentistry, optometry, etc.)
• Industry jobs (especially pharmaceutical companies like Eli Lilly and others)
• Graduate school (doctorate and master’s programs)
• Forensic science-related jobs (such as at Indiana Drug Enforcement Section)
• Patent and environmental lawyer

Students work alongside faculty mentors on diverse and interdisciplinary research topics. Some of these research topics include organic synthesis, biofuel developments, applications of laser-induced fluorescence techniques, biomedical physics and ultrasounds, computational data processing/analysis and chemistry-related programming. Working on research projects helps prepare students for excellence whether they are planning to go directly into the workforce or pursue an advanced or professional degree after graduation.

Student Learning Outcomes

Through various courses (Analytical Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Instrumental Analysis etc.) offered in the chemistry & physics program, students learn:

• The fundamental chemistry knowledge
• The ability to communicate science with professionals and with the public
• The ability to analyze scientific data and extract significant conclusions
• The ability to utilize computer programs to solve problems
• The ability to synthesize chemicals and characterize them
• The ability to design experimental plans for chemical/physical research

Through courses related to health and medicine (Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Toxicology, Ultrasonography, Radiation and Health, and Biomedical Optics) students learn:

• The fundamental chemistry and physics knowledge related to health profession
• To understand the collaboration between the fields of science and medicine

Through science courses designed for non-science majors (Astronomy, Earth Science, General Chemistry and General Physics) students get introduced to:

• Scientific concepts
• The process of scientific thinking
• How science is a creative process of discovery
• How science is conducted

The undergraduate program in chemistry introduces students to the collection of chemical principles, theories, and facts that have evolved in the more than 200 years that chemistry has existed as a science. The program gives students an opportunity to collect, analyze, and critically evaluate data in the laboratory, and to appreciate the relationship of factual data to scientific purposes, laws, and theories. The body of knowledge acquired and the experience gained in the use of modern instrumentation to collect and to analyze data, prepares students for further study in chemistry at the graduate level, for the pursuit of a career in industrial chemistry or in a health science, and also serve as a chemistry knowledge base necessary for the study of other sciences, including medicine, pharmacy, optometry, biology, toxicology, and environmental science. Finally it is the aim of the department to help the student better understand the natural and the synthetic products and the processes that are encountered in everyday life, thus to satisfy the student‘s curiosity about the physical world.

The physics program at Franklin College is designed to provide students with a working knowledge of physics to support and enhance their study in their major discipline. The program provides experiences that enable students to understand the nature of physics and to use physics as a problem-solving tool. The program concentrates on the development of critical thinking.

The students who minor in biomedical physics and chemistry will be well supported for their major course of study and better prepared for success in graduate or professional schools, or immediate employment. Student abilities that are fostered by this curriculum include: understanding the nature of scientific reasoning in considerable depth, understanding the concepts and methods of physics and chemistry, and being able to synthesize information from basic topics and applying it to solve real world problems.