Environmental Analytical Chemistry

Climate change, and air, water and soil pollution are critical societal problems that will affect most, if not all communities, companies, and countries across the globe over the next 50 years. This program will train you in cutting-edge environmental analytical chemical techniques that are used to investigate such pollution and guide mitigation and remediation.

More widely, this program will train you in advanced laboratory analysis, statistical and modelling approaches to interrogating and synthesising datasets, and reporting and communicating data.

There will be particular emphasis on the use of such data to develop policy and/or practical recommendations. In the research project, you will be working on current topics drawn from environmental research such as urban air pollution, water quality and sustainable agriculture.

This Environmental Analytical Chemistry program from University of Bristol will appeal to a wide range of students with a science and engineering background. Although focused on environmental applications, you will gain a broad training that will facilitate progression to a diversity of future science and engineering-based careers.

The need for experts in environmental analysis and remediation is predicted to increase, making graduates of this program well placed to take up emerging jobs in companies and organisations requiring this type of expertise.

The Organic Geochemistry Unit and the Atmospheric Chemistry Research Group that will run this course are both world-leading in environmental analytical science, being a home to a laboratory of the NERC-funded National Environmental Isotope Facility (NEIF) and a node of the NASA-funded Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE) project.

Therefore, the collection of state-of-the-art chromatography and mass spectrometry platforms (including organic and stable isotope ratio mass spectrometers and an14C accelerator mass spectrometer) combined with world-leading research is unparalleled. In addition, the School of Chemistry at the University of Bristol is home to the only Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in practical Chemistry (Bristol ChemLabS) founded in 2005 and has pioneered teaching of analytical chemistry through virtual instruments and smart worksheets.

Therefore, the combination of leading analytical science and education methods makes this course unique.

Career prospects

A hands-on approach, coupled with world-leading virtual instruments provides a comprehensive course that will enable students to pursue further research (for example, a PhD) in analytical science progressing to academic careers.

Graduates of this course will be well-prepared for careers in: instrument development in the industrial sector, specialist technical support roles, careers in environmental science (for example, national environment agencies, private consultancies, and environmental advisory services, such as government policy units and think tanks), and non-science-based careers (for example, training and teaching in data analysis).

Courses include:

• To obtain additional information about the program, we kindly suggest that you visit the program website, where you can find further details and relevant resources.