Research programs here are directed towards understanding disease and oxidative damage, structure/reactivity of diverse compounds and related ions, and developing computational and spectroscopic tools for structural biology and homeland defense. This generally cross-disciplinary research relies on a combination of spectroscopic, biophysical, computational, and theoretical methods to address fundamental problems in chemical dynamics, energetics, and structure. Specific examples of ongoing research in inorganic chemistry include elucidating the role of metals in biology, including diseases such as Alzheimer’s and those initiated by oxidative damage. Projects employ a variety of spectroscopies, including absorption, fluorescence, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and circular dichroism (CD). Computational and theoretical efforts that focus on strained, aromatic, and “exotic” compounds cross the boundaries of physical, organic, and inorganic chemistry. Laser spectroscopy is applied extensively to understand photochemical events. For example, ultrafast spectroscopy initiates and probes the earliest events of photochemical reactions to understand and even predict the topology of chemical reactions. Time-correlated single-photon counting can reveal the mechanism of response of fluorescent polymers, fabricated for environmental sensing applications. Computational chemists at UMBC are developing novel methods to predict the structure and vibrational energy transfer processes in proteins. In addition, ongoing research programs focus on application of neutron scattering and terahertz spectroscopy for structural determination of macromolecular assemblies.