Message from the Chairman

Chairman
Prof. David Kariuki, Chairman, Department of Chemistry

Department of Chemistry is in the Faculty of Science & Technology.  It handles about 1800 undergraduate students each academic year and about thirty (30) Master of Science and eight (8) Ph.D students each year.  These students are handled by 47 academic members of staff in the areas of Physical, Organic, Inorganic, Environmental, Analytical and Industrial Chemistry.

The Department offers the following undergraduate programmes; Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, Bachelor of Science in Industrial Chemistry and Bachelor of Science in Analytical Chemistry.  In addition, the Department also services various faculties as follows: Agriculture, Design, Engineering, Medicine and Pharmacy.

We also offer postgraduate programmes leading to Master of Science in Chemistry, Master of Science in Industrial Chemistry, Master of Science in Analytical Chemistry and Master of Science in Environmental Chemistry and PhD programme leading to PhD in Chemistry.  Undergraduate programmes are offered during the day only while MSc programmes are offered during both day and evening.

The Department is in possession of the following pieces of equipment which has made research possible: 400MHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Infrared Spectrophotometer (IR), Gas-Chromatograph (GC), Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS), HPLC, Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS), Flame Photometer, UV/Vis Spectrophotometer and X-ray diffractometer.

As part of income generating activities, the Department engages in the following consultancies:

Chemical Processes and Technologies, Pollution and Environmental Control and Monitoring, Quality Assurance and Specialized Laboratory Analysis, Domestic water analysis (BOD, COD, chloride, fluoride, sulphate, phosphate, total suspended solids, total dissolved solids, E-coli, metal ion), waste water analysis, impact assessment studies, pesticide analyses, fire disaster analysis just to mention a few.  Detergents and shampoos are also manufactured for sale to clients both within and without. In addition we also train clients at a fee on how these products can be prepared.

For details please contact: dept-chem@uonbi.ac.ke or kkariuki@uonbi.ac.ke