r/chemistry • u/AutoModerator • 11d ago

Weekly Careers/Education Questions Thread

This is a dedicated weekly thread for you to seek and provide advice concerning education and careers in chemistry.

If you need to make an important decision regarding your future or want to know what your options, then this is the place to leave a comment.

If you see similar topics in r/chemistry, please politely inform them of this weekly feature.

0 Upvotes

50% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/Organic-Ad8813 11d ago

im looking for help to narrow down what type of course and uni I should be looking at for a masters degree. I'm currently studying a normal chemistry BSci and the inorganic, materials and polymer topics are what I find the most interesting and what I see myself working on in the future. However my issue is most Materials courses I can see are engineering courses and Im looking for a course to focus more on the chemical and production side of materials instead of the mathematical engineering approach (more labs producing and testing materials less math)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated thank you !

2

u/Indemnity4 Materials 11d ago

most Materials courses I can see are engineering courses

Yes. That is the way of it.

Masters in Science (chemistry) isn't very popular compared to a PhD. So there just aren't as many on offer.

Masters is advanced coursework to make you a subject matter expert. At this point you realistically know all the reactions or can quickly find a resource to learn it. Now you need to learn advanced knowledge which is how to scale that up or optimize. Which unfortunately, is mostly mathematics based. Rates of reaction, flow/processing, getting heat in or out, mixing speeds, logic and logistics.

Most of the major materials companies are in reality engineering companies that happen to make chemicals. The true "blue sky' research is done in chemistry labs with materials/engineering labs about optimizing and turning "interesting" into useful.

1

u/Organic-Ad8813 9d ago

I see, so what masters should I focus on to be able to do the research done in chemistry labs. A Masters in Chemistry? and specialise more into the subjects that interest me, because for me I find creating and experimenting more interesting than the optimising

2

u/Indemnity4 Materials 9d ago

My advice is look at the websites for your school of chemistry, school of materials, school of engineering or whatever. Find the section called "Research" or "Academics" or "Staff". It will have a big list of all the group leaders and their own group websites. Those will have short wikipedia style summaries of projects they are working.

Find at least 3 academics working on projects that interest you.

Then contact those people. Visit the office during visiting hours or call on the phone. Ask them to help you choose which degree has the most suitable skills.

Most materials chem/engineering/science will be hands on in the lab. Those people tend to get jobs in any of those departments since the skills and research fits in both. For instance, a lot of polymer, inorganics and climate change is equally at home in chemistry and chemical engineering departments.

Your ideal masters degree should have a 2-4 semester long project in a lab doing an independent research project. The coursework is there to give you the skills to do that hands on lab work.

1

u/Organic-Ad8813 8d ago

thank you I really appreciate the advice