The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry is a research intensive department with funded research programs spanning areas from materials to medicine. External research grants from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health as well as many other public and private agencies support the graduate programs in the department.

All research and most teaching activities within the department occur within two centrally-located buildings. Sugihara Hall, a 100,000 square foot modern research facility, was opened in January 2022 to house the department offices, core instrument facilities and research labs. Research is also carried out in the Quinten Burdick building directly across the street from Sugihara Hall.

The department facilities house both teaching and research labs, glassblowing facilities, as well as stockroom and multiuser equipment for the campus. Modern instrumentation is vital to research in the chemical sciences. The quality and quantity of instrumentation within the department has been greatly enhanced in the last few years through aggressive fundraising efforts and university matching support.

The department has world-class research programs focused on several areas including:

• Analytical
• Biochemistry
• Bioinorganic
• Bioorganic
• Chemical Education
• Computational
• DNA/Epigenetics
• Inorganic
• Materials
• Organic
• Physical
• Structure Biology