The Bayer School of Natural and Environmental Sciences (BSNES) is a fully accredited degree-granting institution and the primary college of undergraduate and graduate scientific research at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was formed in 1994 with the separation of the Biological Sciences, Chemistry, and Biochemistry departments from the former College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and subsequently named in honor of the Bayer Corporation. The school currently houses the departments of Biological Sciences, Biotechnology, Biochemistry, Chemistry, Environmental Science & Management, Forensic Science & Law, and Physics. The school also collaborates closely with the Duquesne University School of Pharmacy. In 2010, the department of Chemistry and Biochemistry was designated as a Mass Spectrometry Center of Excellence by Agilent Technologies, allowing for collaborative research into metabolics, proteomics, disease biomarkers, and environmental analysis. In 2011, Duquesne University became one of 98 universities nationwide, and one of nine Catholic universities, to be designated as a high research activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation.
Areas of study
Bachelor of Science (B.S.) programs offered
Biological Sciences
Biochemistry
Chemistry
Environmental Chemistry
Environmental Science
Physics, with available concentrations in Astronomy, Condensed Matter, Education, or broad track
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) programs offered
Biochemistry
Physics
Master of Science (M.S.) programs offered
Biochemistry
Biological Sciences
Biotechnology
Chemistry
Education
Environmental Science & Management, with available concentration in Conservation Biology Forensic Science & Law
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) programs offered
Biochemistry
Biological Sciences
Chemistry
Research facilities
Analytical and spectroscopic research
Collaborative arrangements with other basic and applied science departments have led to the joint operation of such facilities as the Sony Microscopy Laboratory featuring transmission and scanning electron microscopes and associated computer imaging facilities, the X-Ray Crystallography Facility, featuring a Rigaku AFC7R diffractometer, two powder diffractometers and associated computing equipment. Designated as a Mass Spectrometry Center of Excellence to Study Diseases and Environmental Issues by Agilent Technologies, the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry has a research facility equipped with chromatography and spectroscopy instrumentation. Some instruments housed in the facility include:
Agilent Rapid Resolution liquid chromatograph (LC) Agilent HPLC-Chip/MS systems Agilent Mass Quadrupole Time of Flight LC/MS Agilent Triple quadrupole LC/MS Agilent Mass Time of Flight MS Two Agilent Gas Chromatography/ICP-MS Two Agilent Gas Chromatography/EI/CI-MS Gerstel MultiPurpose Sampler equipped with SPME, SBSE, and TDU Bruker ESI Bruker 400 MHz multinuclear NMR Spectrometer Varian 400 MHz and 500 MHz NMR spectrometers SGI Itanium-2 supercomputers Numerous other spectrophotometric and chromatographic instruments
The center was founded by Dr. Mitch Johnson (1962–2010) and Dr. H.M. "Skip" Kingston of the department of Chemistry & Biochemistry.
Biological research
The Biological Sciences department operates the Center for Metals in Biological Systems, which was designed to "provide a center of expertise in metals in natural and synthetic materials focused on structure-function relationships and the development of new applications." The center is operated by Dr. Partha Basu of the department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Computational sciences
The Institute for Computational Sciences is an interdisciplinary organization of faculty members, postdoctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students from the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Sciences. The institute was founded with the purpose of "consolidating expertise at Duquesne University that fosters interdisciplinary research in computational sciences, provides novel educational experiences for students, and creates joint funding opportunities."