RESEARCH FACILITIES

UMBC students are offered hands-on access to an extensive array of tools for modern chemical and biochemical research. The department's specialized research instrumentation includes calorimetry, chromatography, stopped-flow and temperature-jump kinetics, transient laser spectroscopy (including nanosecond laser flash photolysis, picosecond and femtosecond pump-probe, and picosecond fluorescence systems), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (including one 200-, one 300-, one cryoprobe equipped 500-, two 600-, and one 800-MHz instruments), X-band CW electron paramagnetic resonance spectrometry, circular dichroism, X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, atomic absorption- and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry apparatus, as well as extensive molecular modeling and computational chemistry facilities. The department also hosts a Center for Structural Biochemistry, which specializes in the structural analysis of biological molecules (e.g., biopolymers, peptides, and glycoproteins). In addition to TOF/FT, a laser desorbtion mass spectrometer, and both 500- and 600-MHz NMR's, this center houses one of the few tandem mass spectrometers located in academic institutions worldwide. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute suite houses a second 600- and an 800-MHz NMR instrument, both of which are used for high-dimensional studies of HIV proteins, metallobiomolecules, and macromolecular interactions. Access to principal journals is available in the department reference room, and the Albin O. Kuhn library contains more than 2,500 volumes of chemistry and biochemistry texts and subscribes to over 150 chemistry and biochemistry periodicals.

The Department maintains both a Mass Spectrometry Facility and a NMR Facility serving the research needs of the UMBC community and outside users.