The Experience

Discover the environment at the molecular level and how it influences life at the global level. Your studies in Environmental Chemistry will address contemporary issues in modeling the behaviour and fate of molecules in the environment. In this program you will explore the sources and cycles of chemicals, their interactions with organisms and responses to contaminants in the local and global world.

Environmental Chemistry in Today's World

Human society has created hundreds of thousands of chemicals, many of which have entered the environment. Many have been found to be a danger to ecosystems or human health, and what’s more, the impacts of the vast majority of these chemicals are unknown because they have not been investigated. Completing Trent University’s Environmental Chemistry degree will provide you with the knowledge and skills to be able to investigate these chemicals, and help protect the health of humans and ecosystems.

Why Trent?

Trent is renowned for its focus on environmental issues. Solving many environmental problems requires a solid background in both chemistry and environmental science.

The Environmental Chemistry program has been designed to provide a thorough grounding in fundamental chemical principles as well as a detailed understanding of environmental issues and their scientific context.

Graduates of the program will have experience with advanced instrumentation and modern analytical techniques, and will be prepared to handle challenging environmental problems from a multidisciplinary perspective.

The Environmental Chemistry program consists of courses offered individually or jointly by the Chemistry Department and Trent School of the Environment.

A Well-Rounded Degree

In the chemistry subject area, you will take courses starting with a solid foundation of basic chemistry, working up through organic, physical, atmospheric, and aquatic chemistry in second year. In third and fourth year, you focus on more advanced concepts, especially in analytical chemistry, learning different analytical instruments used to detect and quantify different kinds of chemicals, how to prepare samples, calibrate and operate various instrumentation, and interpret the results of analyses.

In the environmental subject area, you will start in the first couple of years with an overview of environmental issues, a more in-depth review of a few issues (to highlight the complexities of these issues), and learning how to design investigations of environmental problems in the field.  In third and fourth years, you move into topics on air pollution chemistry, toxicology, and water pollution chemistry.

By learning skills and knowledge in these two subject areas, students who successfully complete the Environmental Chemistry degree will have a good grounding in both the chemistry and the environmental aspects of chemical pollution, able to both analyze for chemicals and put that analysis into perspective and action to solve environmental problems.

Big Research Opportunities Lead to Study of Small Particles

Trent provided me with many opportunities to develop and strengthen my research skills, and build my confidence to advance my learning as a graduate student. I was able to take part in diverse hands-on learning experiences both in the field and in the lab, including using the state-of-the-art equipment in the Water Quality Centre for my fourth year honours thesis research project. Now, I am conducting research on one of our most pressing environmental issues: microplastics.”

Hang Nguyen, BSc Environmental Chemistry graduate studying microplastic pollution in urban areas