Overview of Department of Chemistry

The Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University has a long history. Its origin could be traced back to Qiushi Academy and Yuying Academy, which were founded in 1897. Qiushi Academy undertook several changes and became Zhejiang Institution of Higher Learning in 1912. It established chemistry department in 1915 that morphed into the Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang  University in 1928. The chemistry discipline in Yuying Academy was founded in 1897 and became an independent department in 1920 after Yuying Academy’s turning into Zhijiang University in 1914. In 1952, universities in China underwent a nationwide reshuffling, due to which the two chemistry departments from Zhejiang University and Zhijiang University merged with each other to form the Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang Normal  College. It later on developed into Department of Chemistry, Hangzhou University in 1958; and in the same year Zhejiang University re-established its own department of chemistry. In 1998 the department of chemistry in Zhejiang University and Hangzhou University, the chemistry teaching and research section of fundamental department in Zhejiang Agricultural University and Zhejiang Medical University amalgamated into the new Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University.

The Department of Chemistry has a famous reputation of scholastic excellence. We are affiliated to a number of famous chemists who are Academicians of either the Chinese Academy of Sciences or the Chinese Academy of Engineering, that have studied or taught in the Department of Chemistry.

Through years of development, the Department of Chemistry has progressed into an influential chemistry education and research institution with comprehensive discipline strength. The department has the primary National Key Discipline of Chemistry and postdoctoral research station in the discipline of chemistry. It owns the “National Base for Training of Research and Teaching Talents in Basic Science”, the “National Teaching Base for Basic Courses of Engineering”, and the first experimental teaching demonstration center of national level.

At present, the Department of Chemistry has 206 faculty staff members, including 63 professors, 60 associate professors and 39 postdoctoral scholars. There are 301 Ph. D. candidates, 254 graduates and 380 undergraduate students (excluding freshmen), 7 international students.