The goals of the chemistry and biochemistry department are to prepare its majors with a solid foundation of knowledge for advanced study in chemistry, biochemistry, chemical engineering, related disciplines or professional programs (MD, DDS, DVM, etc.); or careers in industrial, environmental, and governmental laboratories; or for careers in teaching. The department strongly believes in the value of rigorous course work combined with practical experience, and so most advanced students participate in undergraduate research.  The department is, and deems it essential to be, very well equipped with instrumentation to support modern research activities.  Students are encouraged to present the results of research at conferences or in chemistry journals. Paid internships with local industries are also available.

The Chemistry Club is very active and includes in its activities an outreach program to local schools. Departmental honors and scholarships include the Moos, Keller, Thumm, Marletta and Dingledy awards. The department offers two tracks, each leading to a B.S. in Chemistry degree. Track I, the Standard Major, is often chosen by students having second majors or minors in related disciplines. Track II satisfies the curriculum requirements of the American Chemical Society (A.C.S.) and is recommended for students interested in graduate or professional schools. Each track requires the completion of a Core Program plus additional course work. The departments of Chemistry and Biology jointly administer a major in Biochemistry. The department maintains a graduate program leading to a M.S. degree. A five-year program is available to outstanding students which is a combined B.S./M.S. program.

Grading Standards: A minimum C- grade is necessary for all required chemistry courses counted toward the major or minor; a collective minimum 2.00 grade point average is necessary for all required mathematics/computer science, and physics courses.

Prerequisites/Corequisites for Laboratory Courses: Laboratory and lecture courses are separately enrolled and graded. As a result, there are some general requirements for laboratory courses: (1) CHEM 126 or 130 is a prerequisite for any laboratory course at a higher level; (2) for all laboratory courses the corresponding lecture course is a pre- or corequisite; (3) if a student drops or withdraws from a lecture course, he/she may be required to withdraw from the corresponding laboratory course.

Cooperative Engineering: The department participates in the Cooperative Engineering program. Refer to the description of this program.

For the B.S. degree in Geochemistry, an interdisciplinary program with the geosciences department: The course requirements for this curriculum are given under Geosciences.

Teacher Certification: Students wishing to teach chemistry in the secondary schools can obtain provisional certification by completing either of the tracks described below and the required courses in Professional Education. The procedure to be followed for admission to the professional sequence of courses under the School of Education. Students in all education programs are required to demonstrate competence in a foreign language. This requirement may be satisfied in any one of the following four ways: (1) completion of course work at the 116 level at Fredonia, or (2) transferring of two successful college semesters, or (3) scoring at the 50th percentile or higher on the CLEP exam, or (4) completion of three years of high school language with a passing Regents score (passing = 65 percent).
The College Core Curriculum foreign language requirement differs from the certification requirement and must be satisfied for degree conferral.

A.C.S. Approved Track: The curriculum for the A.C.S. Approved Track is reviewed annually by the A.C.S. Committee on Professional Training. If, because of this review, it becomes necessary to modify the curriculum requirements, revisions will be on file with both the Dean of the College of Natural and Social Sciences, and the Vice President for Academic Affairs. Such revisions would be in effect for students who had completed less than 60 credit hours at the time of the revision.