Molecular Sciences - master

With knowledge in molecular sciences, you can address the grand challenges of the future. This can be making efficient use of natural resources, developing solutions in health and medicine, confronting environment and climate challenges, and securing and improving global food production. You can learn how new molecules can be used to design new and improved drugs, medicine and materials to benefit health, industry and environment.

More information about the program structure and courses in the different specializations you can find here.

The program offers a flexible and modern chemistry degree with a range of options beyond traditional study programs in the field. As a student in this master program, you will receive thorough training and skill-building in chemistry fields tailored to your interests.

If you want to strengthen your knowledge about chemical and biochemical processes, and apply it to fields such as medicine, biology, geology, material science, nanotechnology, pharmacy and environmental studies, this program is the right choice for you!

After completion of the programme, the candidate:

Knowledge

• has an overview of discipline-relevant scientific approaches to analyse and understand molecular properties and processes
• has thorough knowledge of theory and methods used in molecular sciences
• has advanced insight into international research and development within her or his discipline
• has acquired advanced knowledge and understanding needed to contribute to innovation and discovery within her or his discipline

Skills

• can independently use and analyse various sources of information to structure and formulate scientific arguments
• can independently produce and analyze data, products and results employing discipline-relevant scientific methods, instrumentation, and software
• can critically analyze and evaluate the quality of data and results
• can conduct scientific work and document results in accordance with applicable standards and norm for research ethics
• can carry out independent limited research under supervision

A candidate within the discipline of Biomolecular Chemistry and Bioinformatics

• can manipulate and study biological macromolecules at DNA and amino acid levels experimentally (recombinant protein production) and/or computationally (bioinformatics)
• can study structural, functional, and biophysical properties of biological macromolecules experimentally (crystal structure determination, intermolecular interactions, enzyme function) and/or computationally (molecular modelling, drug design)
• can apply informatics tools to analyse biological macromolecules and their properties at genetic sequence and/or amino acid and/or structural levels

A candidate within the discipline of Chemical Synthesis and Spectroscopy

• can plan and carry out chemical syntheses of organic or inorganic molecules
• can analyse synthetic and natural substances with advanced chromatographic, spectroscopic and/or crystallographic methods

A candidate within the discipline of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry

• can use state of the art software to model and analyse molecular structure, molecular properties, or chemical processes
• can develop and implement computational protocols to model chemical systems
• can predict or interpret the behaviour of chemical systems by making use of advanced computational infrastructure

General competence

• can critically read, cite, analyse and understand scientific literature
• can independently communicate scientific information clearly and precisely, bothwritten and oral forms
• can independently analyse and judge the reliability of information obtained from different sources and has a sound critical attitude towards knowledge from all sources
• can independently conduct research activities and communicate the research questions and results in both written and oral forms
• can carry out knowledge-based evaluations of general problems in science and communicate this to the public
• can accomplish research projects under guidance, e.g. under a PhD program in molecular sciences, chemistry or related areas
• can apply the obtained knowledge to independently solve new problems in natural sciences and to contribute to research and innovation

Courses are taught as lectures and seminars, some in combination with experimental laboratory exercises, and some purely through laboratory work. Courses are assessed through oral or written exams, some through assessment of a laboratory or project report, and some as a combination of methods.

As a master student you become a member of one of the research groups at the Department, with an assigned thesis supervisor. You are advised to contact potential supervisors already the first semester in order to start planning course work and the research project, which may be started the first year. Throughout the research project, you may work closely in teams with Ph.D students, post-doctoral fellows and senior scientists, and for some projects, local industry and enterprises.

Master thesis research projects can be designed and carried out in collaboration with relevant employers, such as the Norwegian Institute of Air Research (NILU), ArcticZymes, Amicoat and many more. These projects can be theoretical or experimental in nature, or a combination of these, and might be applied to basic and applied research questions. Combination of different specializations to acquire a wider expertise is also possible. Eligibility to projects may depend on the student's background.

A Master degree in Molecular Sciences at UiT is the foundation for exciting careers in a variety of fields, both in Norway and internationally. The specializations provide crucial skills and knowledge for the development of new sources of renewable energy (e.g. biofuels, solar cell materials), new solutions for the treatment of pollutants and waste (e.g. biomass conversion), and new technological tools which improve the efficiencies and reduce the costs of industrial processes (e.g. design of novel biocatalysts). The degree will also make you eligible for positions in industry or academia in topics related to life sciences, biotechnology, medicinal and materials sciences. The scientific computing projects can also qualify the graduates for positions in computational modelling, data handling and analysis, software development or high-performance computing.

Our students have found careers as:

• pharmaceutical industry researchers, operators and analysts
• laboratory engineers at hospitals, private companies or research institutions
• aquaculture specialists
• safety, health and environment professionals
• researchers at private companies, research institutions, hospitals and universities
• Programmers, data engineers and computational modelers