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.

This program offers three specializations

• Biomolecular chemistry and bioinformatics
• Chemical syntesis and spectroscopy
• Theoretical and computational chemistry

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 scientific approaches to analyse and understand natural phenomena, using theory and methods of molecular sciences.
• Has thorough knowledge of theory and methods within at least one of the disciplines offered in the Master of Molecular Sciences programme.
• Has advanced insight into international research and development within one of the disciplines offered in the Master of Molecular Sciences programme.
• Has acquired advanced knowledge and understanding sufficient to enable innovation and discovery within her or his dicipline.

Skills

• Can critically read, cite, analyse and understand scientific literature
• Can communicate scientific information clearly and precisely, both written and oral forms.
• Can critically produce, analyse and evaluate the quality of data, products and results generated within the chosen field of molecular sciences.
• Can use sophisticated and advanced methods and instrumentation relevant for the chosen discipline, and interpret the results generated.
• Has become proficient within the chosen discipline of molecular sciences, and has acquired basic tools needed to carry out independent research and to complete an advanced research project under the supervision of a supervisor.

Biomolecular Chemistry and Bioinformatics:

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

Chemical Synthesis and Spectroscopy:

• Plan and carry out chemical syntheses of organic or inorganic molecules
• Analyze synthetic and natural substances with advanced chromatographic, spectroscopic and/or crystallographic methods.

Theoretical and Computational Chemistry

• Use state of the art software to model molecular structure, molecular properties or chemical processes
• Develop and implement computational protocols to model chemical systems
• Predict or interpret the behavior of chemical systems by making use of advanced computational infrastructure.

General competence

• Can analyze and judge the reliability of information obtained from different sources and has a sound critical attitude towards knowledge from all sources.
• Can apply the obtained knowledge to solve problems in natural sciences.
• Can accomplish some independent research 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.

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