MIT Department of Chemistry

MIT Department of Chemistry The Department of Chemistry at MIT is recognized as one of the top chemistry departments in the world. Approximately 33% of our students are women.
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The Department has an illustrious history in sharing the MIT tradition of excellence, and has provided national leadership in chemical education and research. The Department's strong record of achievement is based on its pioneering advances in chemical research, its success in incorporating these advances into teaching and research programs, and its close relationship to government and industry. M

any fundamental discoveries made in our Department have found their way into practical applications ranging from polymer synthesis to medical imaging.The Department presently has over 30 faculty members, all of whom participate in the graduate educational program and direct active research programs. There are currently about 100 undergraduate chemistry majors, nearly 250 graduate students, and about 100 post-doctoral associates and visiting fellows in the Department. In a recent year, the graduate population included students from 20 foreign countries and from more than 104 colleges and universities around the United States. This representation of students from widely different backgrounds contributes to the enrichment of student life within the Department. In recent years, the Department has awarded from 25 to 45 doctoral degrees per year. The Department's program of teaching and research spans the breadth of chemistry. General areas covered include biological chemistry, inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, and physical chemistry. Specialized areas such as environmental chemistry, materials chemistry and nanoscience are also covered. Some of the research activities of the Department are carried out in association with various interdisciplinary laboratories such as the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, the Center for Materials Science and Engineering, the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, the Francis Bitter Magnet Laboratory, the Research Laboratory of Electronics, the Lincoln Laboratory, the GR Harrison Spectroscopy Laboratory, and the Whitehead Institute. These interdepartmental research laboratories provide stimulating interaction among the research programs at several MIT departments and give students the opportunity to become familiar with research work in disciplines other than chemistry. There are also opportunities for research in cooperation with other Departments such as Biology, Chemical Engineering, Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, and Physics. A special training program in cancer research is administered with in the department, and many of our students are members of other training programs such as the biotech training program and the Merck Fellowship. This spectrum of research activity, combined with a variety of challenging graduate subjects and an extensive seminar program, provide our graduate students with the foundation needed for a meaningful professional career and a lifetime of independent learning. It is this combination which makes the MIT graduate in chemistry capable of adapting both to the changing demands of his or her profession and to the career opportunities encountered.

The MIT Department of Chemistry is hiring! We are seeking candidates for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position beg...
08/25/2026

The MIT Department of Chemistry is hiring! We are seeking candidates for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position beginning July 1, 2027. We welcome applicants across all areas of chemistry. Applications are due October 1, 2026.

Learn more and apply via the link in our comments.

Xiao Wang, the Thomas D. and Virginia Cabot Associate Professor of Chemistry and Core Member of the Broad Institute of M...
08/21/2026

Xiao Wang, the Thomas D. and Virginia Cabot Associate Professor of Chemistry and Core Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, has been selected as the recipient of the 2027 Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry. Administered by the Division of Biological Chemistry (BIOL) of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and sponsored by Eli Lilly, the award was established to stimulate fundamental research in biological chemistry by scientists within 10 years of completing their postdoctoral training.

Wang joined the Department of Chemistry and the Broad Institute in 2019 and earned tenure in 2024. As the recipient of the Eli Lilly Award, she will be honored as the featured speaker at a symposium held during the Spring 2027 ACS National Meeting.

The Wang Lab develops and applies state-of-the-art tools across chemistry, biophysics, and genomics to map the brain from molecules to systems. Specifically, using in situ sequencing of nucleic acids as a core approach, Wang aims to develop high-resolution, highly multiplexed molecular imaging methods across multiple scales to better understand the physical and chemical basis of brain wiring and function.

Professor Alexander T. Radosevich and Professor Alison Wendlandt have each been named 2026 Arthur C. Cope Scholars by th...
08/21/2026

Professor Alexander T. Radosevich and Professor Alison Wendlandt have each been named 2026 Arthur C. Cope Scholars by the American Chemical Society. These awards are presented annually by the ACS to recognize and encourage excellence in organic chemistry.

Radosevich, who joined the Department of Chemistry in 2016, was honored for discovering new reaction pathways and organocatalysts featuring biphilic phosphorus (P) compounds that operate through P(III)/P(V) redox cycling. Research in the Radosevich group centers on inventing new homogeneous catalysts and reagents derived from inexpensive, earth-abundant p-block elements.

Wendlandt joined the Department of Chemistry in 2018 and was honored for developing light-driven methods for stereochemical editing and their synthetic applications. Her research focuses on developing selective, catalytic reactions using the tools of organic and organometallic synthesis alongside physical organic chemistry.

Recipients of the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Awards will be honored at the Fall 2026 meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Ammonia is one of the most important chemicals produced in the world, ranking second only to sulfuric acid in the total ...
08/21/2026

Ammonia is one of the most important chemicals produced in the world, ranking second only to sulfuric acid in the total volume produced each year. It is used mostly to make fertilizer, which is essential to feeding the world’s population. Yet its production accounts for up to 2 percent of the world’s energy consumption and about 1.5 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, so the search has been underway for ways to produce ammonia more sustainably.

The traditional way of making ammonia, in use for more than a century and accounting for the vast majority of production, is the Haber-Bosch process, which relies on fossil fuels to provide the needed heat. Hydrogen used in the process is also largely produced from fossil fuels.

There is another way, using electrochemistry instead of heat and pressure, but so far this method has not been anywhere near economically competitive at the scales needed.

Now, researchers at MIT have developed a way to predict which materials could be most promising as catalysts in electrochemical ammonia production. Catalysts help drive chemical reactions, and their properties determine how efficiently those reactions proceed. Rather than using trial and error to test each possible combination out of the millions of possible alloys — which can take years — the new approach could greatly speed up the search for materials that could make this low-emissions method competitive with the Haber-Bosch process.

“Our approach identifies the key physical properties that drive catalytic activity in ammonia production,” says Bilge Yildiz, the Breen M. Kerr Professor in the departments of Nuclear Science and Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE). The results can guide the search for new and more effective catalyst compounds.

The open-access findings were published Aug. 11 in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal EES Catalysis, in a paper by Yildiz and doctoral students Constantine Athanitis of DMSE and Filip Grajkowski of the Department of Chemistry.

Read more via the link in the comments.

Molecules are among the smallest building blocks available for making next-generation devices. Their unique, customizabl...
08/21/2026

Molecules are among the smallest building blocks available for making next-generation devices. Their unique, customizable properties enable promising applications in emerging computing, sensing, optical, and quantum technologies.

But integrating molecules into functional devices at scale remains a challenge. Traditional semiconductor manufacturing processes can damage small and fragile molecular materials. Now, MIT researchers have developed a scalable fabrication technique that incorporates delicate molecular materials into electronic devices on a chip without causing damage.

Their method extends the capabilities of standard semiconductor manufacturing processes to accommodate molecules. The researchers first prefabricate the device components using traditional processes. Then, they introduce the molecules and harness nanoscale surface forces to mechanically transform the fabricated device, which self-assembles without damaging the molecules.

The team demonstrated the robustness and scalability of their technique by fabricating more than 1,000 devices using sub-nanometer molecular layers.

“Our platform combines the scalability of conventional semiconductor manufacturing with the precision and control of self-assembly. This establishes a new fabrication framework for the scalable, high-throughput integration of emerging nanoscale and quantum materials, including molecules, into functional devices with architectures and capabilities that were previously infeasible,” says Farnaz Niroui, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science (EECS), a member of the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE), and senior author of a new paper describing the work.

She is joined on the paper by co-lead authors Sarah Spector and Peter Satterthwaite, EECS graduate students; Jeremiah A. Johnson, the A. Thomas Guertin Professor of Chemistry at MIT; and others at MIT.

Read more via the link in the comments.

Nitrogen gas is abundant in Earth’s atmosphere, but most living organisms can’t readily use this nitrogen. Only a subset...
08/21/2026

Nitrogen gas is abundant in Earth’s atmosphere, but most living organisms can’t readily use this nitrogen. Only a subset of microbes that have enzymes known as nitrogenases can break nitrogen gas apart and convert it into ammonia.

There are three different classes of nitrogenases found in nitrogen-fixing microbes, which vary based on the types of metal that they contain. Nitrogenases that contain the metal molybdenum are the most efficient, and two new studies from MIT offer an explanation for why that is.

The findings could help guide the design of engineered enzymes or synthetic catalysts that can convert nitrogen gas to ammonia, the researchers say.

The team found that while molybdenum doesn’t directly bind to nitrogen, it helps nearby iron atoms bind to nitrogen more strongly. This is a critical first step in breaking the bond between the two nitrogen atoms that form nitrogen gas.

“It’s that initial binding step that’s really the hard part. Once you’ve started to break the nitrogen-nitrogen triple bond and make some new nitrogen-hydrogen bonds, it’s pretty easy to get the rest of the way,” says Daniel Suess, the Arthur Amos Noyes Professor of Chemistry at MIT and a senior author of both papers.

Read more via the link in the comments.

Gregory Valtierra has been at MIT since August, 2024 and is originally from Culver City, CA. His research in Professor A...
08/21/2026

Gregory Valtierra has been at MIT since August, 2024 and is originally from Culver City, CA. His research in Professor Alexander T. Radosevich‘s group is focused on investigating the electrochemical properties of redox-active phosphorus compounds.

“I chose to pursue a PhD in chemistry because I wanted to learn to think deeply about chemical problems and to develop the greater technical skills in synthetic chemistry,” said Gregory. “I hope that my development during the course of my degree will enable me to make more significant contributions towards the synthesis and discovery of new therapeutics.”

As the subject of this month’s Graduate Student Spotlight, Gregory shares the subject he could give a 40 minute presentation on with little preparation, the food he craves most often, the lineup for his ideal music festival, and more.

Read Gregory's full interview via the link in the comments.

Researchers in the lab of Sam Peng, Pfizer Inc. – Gerald Laubach Career Development Assistant Professor of Chemistry and...
07/28/2026

Researchers in the lab of Sam Peng, Pfizer Inc. – Gerald Laubach Career Development Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Core Institute Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, have developed a groundbreaking super-resolution imaging platform called U-STORM (Upconversion enabled Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy). This new technology allows scientists to visualize molecular structures with sub-Ångström-level localization precision—three orders of magnitude beyond the nanometer limits of standard fluorescent dyes—while drastically simplifying the imaging process. Unlike traditional dyes that fade rapidly under illumination and limit data collection, U-STORM utilizes a new class of compositionally engineered upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) that blink spontaneously and indefinitely. The study represents a fundamental shift in both optical materials and biological imaging.

Read more via the link in the comments.

A new study led by MIT researchers could drive the development of more energy-efficient digital displays — such as flat-...
07/15/2026

A new study led by MIT researchers could drive the development of more energy-efficient digital displays — such as flat-screen TVs, augmented and virtual reality headsets, smartphone screens, medical imaging devices, and even large-area ambient lighting surfaces — that also generate richer, brighter colors.

The MIT scientists, in collaboration with researchers at Samsung, studied the microscopic changes that occur inside LEDs that utilize electrically excited quantum dots, which are precisely shaped nanoscale semiconductor particles that emit extremely pure colored light.

Quantum dots are currently used in some of the computer and television displays with the best picture quality available. The efficiency of these displays could be further improved, and their manufacturing process further simplified, if the quantum dots could be electrically excited, as was first demonstrated in the quantum dot LED (QD-LED) structures over 20 years ago.

But limitations on the operating lifespans of these QD-LEDs have prevented their widespread use in commercial applications.

The new study shows how encapsulating QD-LEDs in an acrylate-based resin can extend their lifespan by minimizing the physical degradation that would otherwise occur during QD-LED operation.

The researchers demonstrated that encapsulating QD-LEDs with a resin layer using a simple, scalable process boosts stability and performance. In some devices, resin encapsulation enabled a 5,000-fold lifespan improvement. Importantly, their study reveals the fundamental reasons resin encapsulation is effective.

Read more via the link in the comments.

The Antarctic ozone hole was discovered in 1985, when scientists observed a severe depletion in the Earth’s protective l...
06/30/2026

The Antarctic ozone hole was discovered in 1985, when scientists observed a severe depletion in the Earth’s protective layer of stratospheric ozone. Industrial chemicals known as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), then widely used as refrigerants, propellants, foam-blowing agents, and solvents, were at the root of the ozone depletion. After concerted global effort to phase out the use of CFCs, ozone today is recovering, especially in the Antarctic.

The discovery of the ozone hole was possible thanks, in part, to the measurement tools that were available at the time. Advances in those tools, along with satellites and other monitoring technologies, have since allowed scientists to track ozone’s recovery.

But what if today’s tech was available much earlier? Would scientists have been able to spot even earlier signs of human-induced ozone depletion? And if so, when would those first signs have popped up, and where?

MIT scientists now have some answers. The team, led by atmospheric chemist Susan Solomon, has carried out a thought experiment in which they consider a hypothetical world where today’s atmospheric monitoring capabilities were available throughout the last century. In this scenario, they simulated the atmosphere’s chemistry through history and discovered not only when the earliest sign of ozone depletion would have been detectable, but also where, and why.

In a study appearing today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists suggest that the first signs of ozone depletion appeared as early as 1957 — about 30 years before the ozone hole was discovered. And, this first signal of ozone loss popped up not in the Antarctic, but in the upper stratosphere of the tropics. What’s more, the cause of this early depletion was not due to CFCs, but to another industrial chemical: carbon tetrachloride.

Read more via the link in the comments.

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