Facilities
 The facilities available to the faculty and students
in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at USP are located
in three of the buildings on campus; Griffith Hall
(seen here), the Robert McNeil Graduate Study and Research
Center (seen below in the snow), and the new McNeil
Science & Technology Center. Griffith Hall is an elegant,
classically designed building originally constructed in 1927 which
was extensively remodeled and modernized in 1985. Additional renovations
are planned over the course of the next few years as a result of
the completion of the STC in Fall 2005, and consequent move of faculty in
several departments, including bioinformatics, biology, computer science, math,
and physics, out of Griffith and into the STC. A significant portion of that
vacated space is anticipated to be renovated and dedicated to research and
teaching activities in DC&B.
A small number of faculty and students in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
who carry out research in the area of computational chemistry, especially those that
interact strongly with the new Department of Bioinformatics and Computer Science, are
now located in the STC.
In 1996, all buildings on campus, including the library, all classrooms,
offices, laboratories and dormitory rooms, were wired to accommodate
Cable TV and High Speed Internet connections. Internet capabiities are
routinely upgraded as technology improves. This greatly facilitates
web searches on the many journals and database resources available,
including ACS journals and important chemical databases such as
Chemical Abstracts (via SciFinder Scholar), Dialog, Medline and
Uncover.
The Department occupies all three floors of the East wing of Griffith
Hall, and contains the Department Office (located in GH 140), most
of the faculty offices, and the teaching laboratories for all courses
offered by the Department. Smaller, two-person research laboratories,
used by both undergraduates and graduate students, are also located
throughout this wing of Griffith Hall, as are several instrument
rooms, a cold room and a constant temperature room.
Additional facilities available to students include:
The Department Computer Cluster,
which is a dedicated computer laboratory containing 16 PCs and two printers;
the West Center for Computational
Chemistry and Drug Discovery, which is home for several Beowulf supercomputer
clusters available for more complex computer applications;
and our NMR Spectrometer
Laboratory, which is available for sophisticated molecular structure analysis.
The McNeil Research Center, built in 1968, contains the remaining
faculty offices (except for those located in the STC), together
with two additional research laboratories used for both undergraduate
and graduate research. Atop the McNeil Research Center is the Albert
Penick Experimental Greenhouse which is used for research in pharmacognosy
(or natural products chemistry) and medicinal chemistry. Other facilities
in McNeil Hall are dedicated to the Department of Pharmaceutical
Sciences and the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice.
In addition to the chemistry laboratory facilities, a variety of
classrooms used by many different departments at the University
are located in Griffith Hall, including the Departments of Occupational
Therapy, Pharmacy and Pharmacy Administration, Information Technology,
Admissions, Human Resources and Financial Aid.
Additional pictures of the campus, including Kingsessing
Mall, at the center of the campus, and historical Clark
Park, located adjacent to the campus (after a snowfall), are
also available via the links here.
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