USC Aiken's Chemistry Program Maintains Coveted Certification

Aiken, SC (08/14/2018) — The American Chemical Society recently recertified the University of South Carolina Aiken chemistry program.

"The ACS approves programs in chemistry so that we can certify our graduates as ACS graduates," said Dr. Chad Leverette, interim dean of the College of Sciences and Engineering and former head of the department.

"To meet this designation, you have to have a rigorous program that includes specific courses in the curriculum; a certain number of faculty in each chemistry subdiscipline; specific resources, like chemical instrumentation, adequate lab and classroom space; and an adequately staffed lab."

This approval by the national organization in this field is "a very difficult process," Leverette adds. In fact, it can take an institution's chemistry program years to become ACS approved. Currently, there are only 10 institutions in the state, including USC Aiken, whose chemistry programs are approved by ACS.

"I believe we are still the smallest ACS approved program in the state. Even though we graduate more ACS certified graduates per year than schools across the country of similar size, the size of our program allows us to have more connections with our students. We are very proud of this," Leverette said.

"The ACS approval allows our graduates to go anywhere in the country. Graduate schools or employers throughout the country know the quality of the degree our students received from USC Aiken because of this national designation."

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