Chemistry Mission Statement

The mission of the Department of Chemistry of Harvey Mudd College is to educate students by sharing with them the joy, power, and beauty of chemistry in the classroom, teaching laboratories, and research laboratories.In the spirit of liberal arts education, we seek to broaden horizons, discover interconnections, and foster the intellectual growth of our students.Graduates of our program will be well-prepared for professions in both traditional chemistry areas, as well as cutting-edge interdisciplinary fields. Our students will be well-equipped to develop chemistry-informed solutions to society’s challenges and opportunities. We aim to be a model of excellence in undergraduate chemical education for the wider chemistry community.

We accomplish our mission in the following ways:

• Offering experiential learning opportunities for students to engage in the production of new knowledge and practices in chemistry and allied fields through experiments including hands-on use of modern instrumentation, synthesis, analysis, computation, and data interpretation in the context of theory and the chemical literature
• Implementing a combination of innovative, evidence-based pedagogical techniques to help students learn
• Providing close student-faculty interactions in the classroom, laboratory, and research
• Being a supportive community that nurtures our students in their development as scientists and citizens; mentoring students through obstacles and helping them learn from mistakes
• Building on the Harvey Mudd College core curriculum and our students’ proficiencies and breadth of knowledge in math, physics, biology, computer science, engineering, humanities, social sciences, and the arts
• Connecting to our local, national, and global communities
• Creating a life-long network of support and collaboration through enduring connections of alumni to the college, department, and each other