Msc | IIT-Mandi

Program coordinator’s message

Dr. Garima Agrawal
Assistant Professor, SCS

We at the School of Chemical Sciences (SCS) are determined to provide state-of-the-art learning and research experience in fundamental and applied Chemistry to the young minds in academia. We believe in the “students come first” approach and try our best to nurture their career goals and aspirations. The success of students is our greatest reward. We are proud of the M.Sc. Chemistry program and our aspiration is our strength.

MSc Chemistry is a two-year (4-semester) postgraduate program, which was the first master-level program offered under the Basic Sciences discipline at IIT Mandi was started in August 2014. MSc Chemistry is now the flagship program of the School of Chemical Sciences. This program is aimed at providing fundamental knowledge in the broad areas of Chemistry through core courses and at the same time offers a knowledge-base in the allied areas and beyond through elective courses. The MSc Chemistry program is highly research-oriented and enables students to avail a “learn-by-doing” approach through research projects. A total of 15 core faculty members of Chemistry faculties from a diverse research background serve as instructors for the MSc Chemistry program.

Our alumni have found themselves in highly reputed national and international institutes and organizations in academia and industry.

About the curriculum

Common core courses cover about 15% of the curriculum. The courses, Mathematics for Chemists, Basic Mechanical and Electronics Workshop, Design and Innovation Practicum, Computational Chemistry constitute common core courses, which provide a solid foundation for the core courses.

Chemistry Core courses cover about 40% of the curriculum. The courses, Organic reactions and mechanism, Photochemistry and Pericyclic Reactions, Chemistry of transition elements, Chemistry of main group elements, Group Theory and spectroscopy, Advanced Quantum Chemistry, Chemical thermodynamics, Molecular reaction dynamics constitute core courses, which provide fundamental understanding of core areas of chemistry.

Laboratory courses courses cover about 15% of the curriculum with three laboratory major branches of chemistry, organic, inorganic and physical laboratory. These courses are designed in such a way that they serve as a bridge between MSc education and experimental chemistry in modern research. The laboratory courses involve measurement of UV-VIS spectra, Fluorescence, FTIR, Dynamic light scattering (DLS), NMR, etc..

Research project cover about 15% of the curriculum with 1-year long research work. This component is unique in IIT Mandi, as we believe in introducing research to the students as early as possible. Therefore, in the first two semesters, students gets a flavor of research through design & innovation practicum (DP-I&II), where they work on defining a research problem that they will work on in the 3rd and 4th semester. During the third semester, the Post Graduate Project work starts, and students perform extensive work in research project in the final semester. Students gets an opportunity to work on projects involving measuring UV-VIS, spectra, Fluorescence, Lifetime, FTIR, Dynamic light scattering (DLS), NMR, TEM, SEM, AFM, Microscope, and Computation and Theoretical Chemistry.

Elective courses cover about 15% of the curriculum, where students have the option to choose specialized elective courses, or free electives. The choice of free elective gives an opportunity to the students to select any area in science/engineering/humanities they they are curious about. There are two mandatory discipline and two mandatory free elective courses in the curriculum.

Current Semester-Wise Course Distribution

Semester-I (20 Credit)
Course Name		L-T-P-C
Organic Reactions & Mechanisms Chemistry of Transition Elements Advanced Quantum Chemistry Mathematics for Chemists Design and Innovation Practicum I Physical Chemistry Laboratory		3-1-0-4 3-1-0-4 3-0-0-3 3-0-0-3 0-0-4-2 0-0-8-4

Semester-II (20 Credit)
Course Name		L-T-P-C
Photochemistry & Pericyclic Reactions Chemistry of Main Group Elements Group Theory & Spectroscopy Discipline Elective I Organic Chemistry Laboratory Design and Innovation Practicum II		3-1-0-4 3-1-0-4 3-0-0-3 3-0-0-3 0-0-8-4 0-0-4-2

Semester-III (21 Credit)
Course Name		L-T-P-C
Computational Chemistry Chemical Thermodynamics & Electrochemistry Organometallic Chemistry Basic Mechanical & Electronics Workshop Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory Discipline Elective II Post Graduate Project I		3-0-0-3 3-0-0-3 2-0-0-2 0-0-4-2 0-0-8-4 3-0-0-3 0-0-8-4

Semester-IV (20 Credit)
Course Name		L-T-P-C
Reaction Dynamics, Kinetics & Catalysis Heterocyclic Chemistry Outside Discipline Elective Outside Discipline Elective II Post Graduate Project II		3-0-0-3 2-0-0-2 3-0-0-3 3-0-0-3 0-0-18-9

*L = Lecture, T = Tutorial, P = Practical, C = Credit

Chemistry core

Sl. No.	Course Code	Course Name	L-T-P-C
1	CY501	Organic Reactions & Mechanisms	3-1-0-4
2	CY506	Chemistry of Transition Elements	3-1-0-4
3	CY512	Advanced Quantum Chemistry	3-0-0-3
4	CY502	Photochemistry & Pericyclic Reactions	3-1-0-4
5	CY507	Chemistry of Main Group Elements	3-1-0-4
6	CY511	Group Theory & Spectroscopy	3-0-0-3
7	CY514	Chemical Thermodynamics & Electrochemistry	3-0-0-3
8	CY508	Organometallic Chemistry	2-0-0-2
9	CY513	Reaction Dynamics, Kinetics & Catalysis	3-0-0-3
10	CY504	Heterocyclic Chemistry	2-0-0-2

Common Core

Sl. No.	Course Code	Course Name	L-T-P-C
11	CY521	Mathematics for Chemists	3-0-0-3
12	CY522	Computational Chemistry	3-0-0-3
13	CY503P	Basic Mechanical & Electronics Workshop	0-0-4-2
14	CY501P	Design and Innovation Practicum I	0-0-4-2
15	CY502P	Design and Innovation Practicum II	0-0-4-2

Discipline electives

Sl. No.	Course Code	Course Name	L-T-P-C
16	CY515	Advanced Inorganic Spectroscopy	3-0-0-3
17	CY541	Fundamentals of Organic Chemistry	3-0-0-3
18	CY547	Chemical Crystallography	2-0-2-3
19	CY550	Bioinspired Materials	3-0-0-3
20	CY552	Hydrogen Generation and Storage	3-0-0-3
21	CY554	Science and Technology of Nanomaterials	3-0-0-3
22	CY555	Introduction to Polymer Science & Technology	3-0-0-3
23	CY556	Organic Spectroscopy	3-0-0-3
24	CY641	Polymer Synthesis	3-0-0-3
25	CY642	Molecular and Bio-electronics	3-0-0-3
26	CY643	Advanced Analytical Techniques	3-0-0-3
27	CY644	Bioinorganic Chemistry	3-0-0-3
28	CY645	Reagents in Organic Synthesis	3-0-0-3
29	CY670	Fluorescence Spectroscopy, Microscopy and Applications	3-0-0-3