Department of Chemistry

Mount Holyoke educates a significant number of Ph.D. earning women chemists.

Modern teaching, state-of-the-art research laboratories and instrumentation, and an energetic, diverse department traces its origins to the pioneering spectroscopic work done by Emma Carr and Lucy Pickett. One quarter of students here major in the sciences or mathematics, twice the number of women majoring in these areas at comparable coeducational institutions.

Faculty collaboration with undergraduates on research projects remains a key element of departmental life. Mount Holyoke's chemistry department is among the best-funded small college science departments in the nation, with a correspondingly high output of top-quality publications and students prepared to enter graduate and other professional schools.

Upcoming events

Instructions for incoming students

Important Forms

Chemistry Placement Exam

Credit/ Transfer and Permissions:

To count a class from another college as part of a chemistry major or minor at ��ý, fill out a , note the number of the corresponding Mount Holyoke College chemistry class, and email the completed form to the chair attaching the other college's web site description of the course and the specific URL with that description. Then, the chair will sure that each class corresponds to its counterpart at MHC and return the signed form to you via email or paper. You would then file the signed form with the registrar's office. Please check the course is appropriate before taking the course.

If you have a grade of C- or less (but passed) on a pre-requisite course, you have two options:

Take the class or an online class (if the issue was not your lab grade) in the subject over the summer and get at least grade of C on it. Once you complete the course, send the Department Chair the transcript and the chair will let the registrar know that you have fulfilled that requirement.

Unofficially audit the class that you got a C- or less in a future semester (before you need the next class). To do an unofficial audit, you need to speak with the instructor of the class you need to audit so that they keep track of all your grades in that class. At the end of the semester, you can ask the instructor to let the registrar know that you have know fulfilled the C- or better requirement if you achieved that grade.

Chemistry faculty and staff

Department head(s)

Darren G. Hamilton

Bertha Phillips Rodger Professor of Chemistry
Chair of Chemistry

Department and affiliated faculty

Katie Berry

Associate Professor of Biochemistry
on leave 2023-2024

Kyle Broaders

Associate Professor of Chemistry
Co-chair of Biochemistry

Wei Chen

Marilyn Dawson Sarles, M.D. Professor of Life Sciences and Professor of Chemistry

W. Donald Cotter

Professor of Chemistry

Maria Alexandra Gomez

Elizabeth Page Greenawalt Professor of Chemistry

Rachel Hems

Visiting Assistant Professor in Chemistry

Kathryn A. McMenimen

Associate Professor of Chemistry
Academic Dean for Seniors

Alan van Giessen

Associate Professor of Chemistry

Staff

Himali Jayathilake

Senior Laboratory Instructor for Physical Chemistry, Research Associate

Contact us

Department of Chemistry

The Department of Chemistry is among the best-funded small college science departments in the nation, with a correspondingly high output of top-quality publications and students prepared to enter graduate and other professional schools.

413-538-2214
G04 Carr Laboratory

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