Department of Chemistry

The Department of Chemistry, one of the earliest departments at Zhejiang Normal University, was founded when Zhejiang Normal University was first established in 1956. The Department of Chemistry boasts a series of scientific innovation and application platforms, featuring Key Laboratory of the  Ministry of Education (Advanced Catalysis Materials), Provincial Level  Key Laboratory (Solid Surface Reaction Chemistry), Provincial Level  Experiment Teaching Demonstration Center (Chemistry), Provincial Level Priority  Discipline (Chemistry), Provincial Level Class-A Top Discipline  (Chemistry), Provincial Level Key Discipline (Applied Chemistry), First  Level Discipline Doctor Station (Chemistry), Provincial Level  High-quality Specialty (Chemistry), Provincial Level Distinctive  Specialty (Applied Chemistry) etc. The Department has a total lab and facility space of 9,000 m² for research and education. The total value of laboratory equipment is about 100 million yuan. After years of construction and development, the Department has formed five research disciplines, including inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry, analytical chemistry and polymer chemistry and physics. The Department of Chemistry at Zhejiang Normal University provides a fine platform for talent cultivation. It has the doctoral degree conferring spots of first-level disciplines for Chemistry and postdoctoral research stations for Chemistry now.

The Department of Chemistry currently employs around 80 faculties, including 40 professors or researchers (30 Ph.D. supervisors); adjunct Academician of Chinese Academy of Science, National Overseas High-Level Talents, National Overseas High-Level Young Talents, NSFC Outstanding Youth Foundation Winners, Zhejiang Province 10000 Plan Experts, Zhejiang Province Overseas High-Level Talents, distinguished professors of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Province 151 Programs and so on.

The Department of Chemistry is research-intensive with total funding of up to 50 million yuan in the last five years. It has  delivered outstanding research outputs that generate significant impact  on scientific communities worldwide. Many research works have been  published in top peer-reviewed journals, including J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Chem. Sci. etc. According to the data published by ESI in the last seven years, chemistry has entered top 1% ESI ranking among universities and research institutions worldwide.

Research Fields

Field 1, Inorganic Chemistry

The research interests include inorganic material chemistry, coordination chemistry and bioinorganic chemistry.

Field 2, Organic Chemistry

The research interests include organometallic chemistry, asymmetric synthesis, synthetic methodologies, supramolecular functional materials and development of green synthesis technology for drug intermediates.

Field 3, Physical Chemistry 

The research interests include electrochemistry, structural chemistry, material chemistry, green catalysts and applied catalysis.

Field 4, Analytical Chemistry

The research interests include biosensor, nano biological analysis, electrochemical analysis, spectrum analysis, environmental analysis, separation and enrichment.

Field 5, Chemical Biology

The research interests in nano-fluorescent probes techniques.

Field 6, Environmental Chemistry

The research interests include environmental pollution chemistry, environmental pollution control, environmental toxicology.

Goals

Students are expected to develop a broad foundational knowledge of chemistry, in particular in their subdiscipline, as well as in-depth knowledge of the area of specialization. 

Students should be able to evaluate scientific work critically and conduct meaningful scientific inquiry leading to new knowledge in the field.

Students must be able to communicate scientific results to experts and broader audiences, and conduct research professionally, responsibly, safely, and ethically.

Time Limitations for Completing Degrees

A Ph.D. candidate may take up to 3.5 calendar years to complete all degree requirements.

Extension Limitations
In principle, the extension for doctoral studies can be up to 3 years. Extensions applied for each time is no more than 12 months for doctoral candidates. Graduate students who have been granted extensions must submit reports on thesis writing progress every 3 months, which are to be verified by their supervisors and filed with the Section of Graduate Student Affairs. Supervisors are expected to enhance their inspection and guidance on the thesis writing and research work of students who have extended their graduate studies. If two reports a graduate student has submitted indicate that he/she has not been making positive progress on thesis writing during the extended period, the extension shall be terminated, and the department shall start procedures on his/her withdrawal from graduate studies.

Degree Requirements for the PhD in Chemistry

I. Time Frame for Graduate Studies

International students shall do their studies within the time frame specified in their Admission Notifications. Students must arrange properly, under the guidance of their supervisors, their time for course studies according to their needs of research and dissertation writing. They must acquire sufficient credits before the thesis defense. In normal cases, students will complete their course studies in the first year of their graduate studies, and spend the remaining years on research and thesis writing.

II. Basic Requirements of PhD Students Training Schemes

The minimum credits required for doctoral programs are 13, of which workshops as well as seminars for 2 credits.

1. Comprehensive Chinese (Required Course): 1 credits
2. China Overview (Required Course): 2 credits
3. The minimum credits that PhD Candidates must acquire by taking specialized degree courses: 2 and professional platform courses: 1.

4. Optional Courses
PhD students must also take optional courses related to their specialized programs (2-5 credits), optional common courses offered at the university level or cross disciplinary graduate courses.

5. Workshops as well as Seminars: 2 credits

Development  of written and oral communication skills fulfills an important  professional function: chemists are often called upon to give written  and/or oral reports of their research work or the work of others. These  presentations and the discussions that follow provide one of the most  important avenues of communication in science. It is, therefore,  necessary to learn how to communicate and to benefit from the ensuing  discussions.

III. Confirmation of PhD Candidature

A PhD student must have successfully completed their course studies before the arrangement of confirmation of candidature.
Between the 12th and 18th months after commencement of study, a full-time PhD student should apply for confirmation of his/her PhD candidature. Application for confirmation of candidature should be made in writing to the Graduate School through the College attaching evidence of research potential at the PhD level. A list of publications, if any, may be included. The student should also: (a) submit a research prospectus; and (b) present his/her research outline, methodology, literature review, expected findings/ results, etc. in an open seminar.

The Department of Chemistry will set up an Assessment Panel chaired by the designate Head. Members comprise the Principal Supervisor and at least one member in the field, who may come from the same or another college/department, to assess the research prospectus, the relevant documents and the seminar presentation.

An open seminar will follow the following procedures:

(a) a brief preliminary meeting (15-30 minutes) of the Assessment Panel should be held prior to the open seminar for the members to exchange views on the general standard of the submitted prospectus;

(b) during the open seminar, questions may be raised by any participants;

(c) immediately after the open seminar, a closed meeting of the Assessment Panel should be held to arrive at a recommendation on the confirmation of candidature (voting may be required if consensus is not reached);

(d) the Principal Supervisor should verbally inform the student of the recommendations/advice given by the Panel. 

The Chairman should fill out an Assessment Panel Chairman Report. Each Panel member (except the Chairman) should fill out an Assessment Panel Member’s Report and hand it to the Chairman for attachment to the Assessment Panel Chairman’s Report. The completed Assessment Panel Chairman’s Report, together with individual Panel members’ reports, the student’s research prospectus and other relevant/supporting documents, should be submitted to the Graduate School. The recommendation on confirmation of candidature should be jointly endorsed by all members of the Assessment Panel.

IV.  Teaching

Zhejiang Normal University seeks  to ensure that every PhD student’s education as a scholar is balanced  with thoughtful and thorough preparation in the art of teaching. All  chemistry PhD students will serve as Teaching Assistants as part of  their education.

V.  Scientific Research and Dissertation
PhD candidates mainly work on scientific research and their dissertations during their university years. The topics of their dissertations should be relevant to the current  research areas and conditions of the supervisors (supervisory teams),  with theoretical and practical significance, capable of representing the  advancement of the discipline. The dissertation proposal is an  important step of the PhD candidate's work of dissertation writing. The time for dissertation proposal writing can be determined according to the progress of the PhD candidate's research, but it must be no later than the end of the students' second year of graduate studies.
PhD candidates will not be able to apply for the dissertation defense unless they have already had their research papers published at the time of the application. Based on the university's basic paper publishing requirements for doctoral studies, the Academic Degree Committees of individual colleges (departments) faculties can set higher standards for publications in accordance with their disciplinary features. Doctoral dissertation defenses and degree conferment are arranged with reference to relevant regulations formulated by the Graduate School of Zhejiang Normal University.

VI. Basic Requirements for Doctoral Students' Paper Publication
A doctoral student who applies for the degree of Doctor of Sciences must have one research paper relevant to his/her dissertation published (or accepted for publication) in journals that are included in SCI in addition to one or more research papers relevant to his/her dissertation published (or adopted) in a first-class journal defined by the Department of Chemistry.