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Chemistry

Welcome to Chemistry and Forensic Science at Keele

With their forensic science, chemistry and medicinal chemistry degree programmes, within the first one or two weeks the students are straight on to the instruments we've got in our labs.

We have a number of GCs - gas chromatographs - and we can use these to look at the components that might be used to start a fire.

Particularly with a forensic science degree we might be looking at an arson investigation. We can look at the petrols that would have made up that mixture.

This type of equipment would be commonly found in many laboratories so in the industrial setting the students going out to gain employment they have got experience in all the instruments they need to have experience on.

They will have been using them solidly for three years and they know them inside out.

Choose here for forensic reasons because the facilities are absolutely amazing.

Well I chose Keele really because I couldn't pick between my two subjects. Because they do dual honours I could do both so I didn't have to decide.

Forensics is amazing. It's such a wide subject and you get to do so much of it from the toxicology side to the analytical chemistry and then all the blood work and crime scene work.

We've created a simulated murder site here and we've buried animal carcasses here as human proxies. Basically we getting the students to work out where things might be buried.

We're trying to make it realistic as possible. Give them a scenario that someone has come in the night and we've some evidence that someone may have buried something. We get them to think where that might be. We get them work through the thought processes that the police might do. All in one building there's physics, chemistry and forensic science so they tend to share resources.

And the equipment they have... there's so much of it. One of the machines even the police don't have and they come into the university to use it.

Labs themselves are really well kitted out. Obviously there's the normal generic stuff you find in any old lab but then you've got things like X-ray machines. You've got the radiation tubes.

Employment prospects for graduates from Keele are excellent with the dual honours system. You can go into a number of different fields. If you don't want to stay with straight chemistry you can go into the pharmaceutical industry, the environmental sector.

With forensic science you might want to think about specialising your forensic science part of your degree by doing a Masters after three years with us at Keele.

By doing forensic science and chemistry combination at Keele you are going to have excellent analytical skills. You can have a really broad perspective on the sciences you are studying in the lecture and the lab and you are going to have a really fun three years.