A particular strength of the Department of Chemistry is that it has supplemented the three core subjects of Chemistry – Inorganic, Physical and Organic Chemistry – with Technical Chemistry, Biochemistry, Macromolecular Chemistry in conjunction with the Department of Plastics at Fraunhofer LBF, and Theoretical Chemistry and Didactics of Chemistry. This broad combination of subjects is almost unique among German universities and offers a variety of interdisciplinary teaching and research for scientific disciplines (Biology, Materials Science, Physics) as well as Engineering Sciences.

The Department maintains a large number of collaborations with national and international partners at renowned universities and research institutions and is involved in numerous exchange programmes. This gives all students the opportunity to spend time abroad during their studies. Careful coordination, selection and support by the Foreign Student Adviser and a professorial mentor ensure that credits earned abroad are recognised. We also offer foreign students an attractive range of courses and a wide range of support.

We have state-of-the-art equipment for research and teaching: An NMR centre houses numerous large-scale instruments for special NMR analysis; our large-scale equipment park covers mass spectrometry, IR, diffractometry, electron microscopy, scanning tunnelling/atomic force microscopy, laser and Raman spectroscopy, DNA/protein structure analysis; own digital learning environment (computer pools), learning centre with seminar rooms and computer workstations; tutor centre with textbook collection. In the last few years, more than EUR 9 million has been invested in teaching alone.

The TU Darmstadt offers a variety of support services for young founders and start-up companies through the HIGHEST innovation and start-up centre, for example in the development of their business models and in the search for investors and suitable funding programs. In the Department of Chemistry, a so-called start-up promoter is available as a contact person on start-up topics for students and the scientific staff, who in turn is in close contact with HIGHEST.

The research activities at the Department of Chemistry combine the breadth of subject knowledge required to educate and train students with specific key areas defined for each location, to ensure the work is visible and attractive on an international level. Due to the prominence of practice-related research groups and collaborations with industry in the Rhein-Main-Neckar region, the department can offer an above-average number of students industry-based research and teaching with a particular focus on professional practice and can coordinate industrial work placements and final theses, thereby offering students the best possible career prospects.