Research themes

The Universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh formed EaStCHEM in 2004 to combine the research activities of two of Scotland’s leading schools of chemistry. EaStCHEM is now recognised for excellence in both core and interdisciplinary chemistry with its wide-ranging research themes reflecting the relevance of modern chemistry in solving important global challenges and improving lives.

EaStCHEM ranked second in the REF 2014 'Power Table' with 80 academics submitted and 95% of research papers classed as world-leading or internationally excellent. The collaborative environment provided by EaStCHEM was assessed as excellent with all aspects rated as internationally or nationally leading.

The strength and ethos of EaStCHEM is particularly evident in the complementary instrumentation provided by both schools of chemistry resulting in the provision of exceptional state-of-the-art facilities and instrumentation.

Research within the School of Chemistry is focused around five broad themes.

Catalysis and synthesis

Understanding how to prepare chemical bonds as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Energy, environmental and sustainable chemistry

Tackling the need for secure energy supplies and limiting society's reliance on non-sustainable feedstocks.

Functional materials

Research that designs and characterises functional solids for applications ranging from energy solutions to industrial catalysis.

Structural chemistry and chemical dynamics

Developing techniques to solve structural chemistry problems and understanding how atoms and molecules interact.

Chemistry biology interface

Using chemical techniques that are applied to study biological systems.