Graduate students also have the opportunity to do research under the supervision of a full-time chemistry faculty.

A student may enroll in CHE 590 for one semester of research, which could be used as an elective that satisfies the requirements for the MS degree in chemistry for those graduate students in the comprehensive exam track. In addition, a graduate student that wishes to pursue the thesis track of the MS degree must complete CHE 588, CHE 589, CHE 590, and CHE 591 during four consecutive semesters. In CHE 588 students will learn how to search the chemical literature. Registration for CHE 588 must precede enrollment in CHE 589. CHE 588 is also available to students in the non-thesis track as an elective. CHE 589 requires that a detailed research proposal is written which must be approved by an internal department committee and submitted to the graduate school. Preliminary experiments can be performed as part of CHE 589 after the proposal has been approved by the department. CHE 590, which must be taken after the research proposal from CHE 589 has been completed and approved, will involve working in the lab alongside a full-time faculty member. During the following semester, the student will register for CHE 591 to obtain final experimental results during the initial part of the semester. Towards the completion of CHE 591, the student will write a graduate thesis and defend his/her research in an oral defense. The thesis must be approved by both a department internal committee and by the graduate school. Therefore, the graduate thesis must adhere to the graduate school theses timelines as well as comply with the graduate school guidelines and department graduate research guidelines. CHE 590 and CHE 591 may only be taken once.