About the Department of Chemistry Sciences

علوم الكيمياء

The Department of Chemistry is one of the departments that was established with the establishment of the College of Science on 3/27/1949. The department has been active since its inception in the field of scientific research. A number of researchers have published many research papers in scientific journals, but this activity focused and became more programmatic when starting postgraduate studies in 1961. 1962 The department was the first to race in this field, as a master’s study was introduced this year, when eight students began their studies according to fixed rules and regulations, which was the first building block.for higher studies in the country. This study faced some difficulties at first due to the lack of scientific equipment and scientific research requirements, but the department was gradually able to overcome them by providing facilities, devices, materials and various supplies. After that, a doctoral study was introduced in 1976/1977, and the department was thus able to graduate a number of postgraduate students, masters and doctorates, with an average of ten master’s students and five doctoral students each year. Some of these graduates had specialized in tackling some problems related to industries outside the scope of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.  

Sophisticated research projects have been approved that include the various disciplines of chemistry such as organic, inorganic, analytical, physical, biological and industrial, some of which have a great relationship with the medical, pharmaceutical and industrial materials that the country needs at the present time. In order to sustain postgraduate studies, the department established a central laboratory that includes advanced research equipment and an efficient staff to carry out various analyzes for postgraduate students and other relevant institutions.

A brief history of the Chemistry Department

The College of Science was established in the year 1949, and at that time it was called the College of Arts and Sciences, and its dean was Prof. Dr. Abdel Aziz Al Douri. The Faculty of Science at that time included two departments, namely, physics, in which chemistry, animals, and plants were taught. The other department was known as physics and mathematics. In the year 1953, the College of Science separated from the College of Arts and moved from its location in Bab al-Moadham to its location in Adhamiya (which is the front part of the current Ibn al-Haytham College of Education) and occupied a small building with rooms of two types, large and small, but it lacked laboratories, so students used to go to laboratories The College of Engineering, the Medical College and the Higher College of Teachers to conduct experiments in chemistry, physics, animals and plants within the practical part of their curriculum. The head of the department at that time was Professor Wadih Fathallah.

In the year 1953, the number of students in the third session of the Faculty of Science/Natures Branch was 25 students, and the share of the Chemistry Department was 10 students, and the teachings in it from the first stage to the third stage included various topics such as mathematics of all kinds and physics (nuclear and optical). In the fourth stage, the subjects taught were: Pure chemistry. In 1958, a batch of Iraqi delegates holding doctorate degrees from developed countries began arriving at the college, including the Department of Chemistry, to be a new nucleus for faculty members. These groups carried the latest scientific developments in chemistry, including Prof. Albertine Habboush, Dr. Fadel Al-Tai and Dr. Sabri Farooha, Dr. Anwar Kiso, Dr. Abdul Reda Al-Salihi and Dr. Ghazi Darwish.

In 1970, the chemistry departments in the College of Agriculture, Education and Science were united to become at the University of Baghdad one department for the specialization of chemistry, which is located in the College of Science. Then, after a few years, the chemistry departments separated again. At the beginning of the establishment of the Department of Chemistry at Al-Mustansiriya University, the Department of Chemistry at the College of Science / University of Baghdad allowed their students to attend the department, take theoretical lectures and complete the practical part, and this continued for a period of years until the completion of the current building of Al-Mustansiriya University. Professors from the Department of Chemistry at the College of Science/University of Baghdad, such as Prof. Dr. Subhi Al-Azzawi, Prof. Dr. Fouad Qanbour, Prof. Dr. Abdul Latif Al-Jubouri, in addition to a cadre of teaching assistants and staff in the Chemistry Department store.

In 1962, the Department of Chemistry began to open a master’s study. The first course graduated in 1965. All of them were graduates of the Department of Chemistry (Bachelor’s), and their number was seven students in the specializations of organic chemistry, physical chemistry and analytical chemistry. Salwa Youssef Rafou Qazanji and Salwa Seroub Kandrian, most of them were appointed in the department as assistant teachers and then completed their doctoral studies in the United Kingdom. In 1972, the Department of Chemistry began to open a doctoral study, and there was an excellent elite of qualified teachers to teach and supervise doctoral students. They are Prof. Dr. Sami Al-Mudhaffar, Prof. Dr. Dr. Fouad Qanbour, Prof. Dr. Basil Al-Sadr, Prof. Galal Muhammad Salih, Prof. Muthanna Shanshal, and Prof. Dr. Thanoun Muhammad Aziz And Professor Dr. Fahd Hussein. The department had workshops at that time necessary to maintain, sustain and produce what it needed in terms of educational and research equipment. It contained two large warehouses for equipment and chemicals, a carpentry workshop, another for electricals, a third for blacksmithing, mechanics, and devices for generating liquid nitrogen gas. At that time, the department contained service laboratories with the most modern equipment needed to perform spectroscopic and electrical analyzes (modern devices for infrared and ultraviolet spectroscopy), electrochemical measuring devices, nuclear magnetic resonance device and other necessary equipment for primary and higher studies.

It was supervised at the time by a group of foreign specialists who trained the teaching assistants in the department on how to use it, and it contributed to providing the service in the field of analysis for graduate students and various state institutions in addition to other universities. At that time, the department included a comprehensive library (within the college library) containing sources, references, textbooks and scientific periodicals specialized in chemistry to enrich the research of students, researchers and teachers in the department with high scientific references. In 1983, the College of Science was transferred from Adhamiya to its current location in Al-Jadriya within the Baghdad University complex.

Department goals

• Providing the community with graduates holding a bachelor’s degree in various chemistry sciences with the title of chemical assistant, where they can work in health laboratories, construction laboratories, control and standardization laboratories, food and pharmaceutical industries, and various chemical industries, including petrochemical industries.
• Providing the community with qualified teachers to teach in different universities in the country
• Providing the community with graduates, masters and doctorates who are qualified to work as researchers in various research fields that keep pace with the scientific progress of chemistry.
•  Contribute to solving scientific problems that contribute to serving the development plan in the country.

Research carried out 2017-2018

Finally, we must remember the brilliant scientific leaders who led the department’s scientific process since its establishment until now, and who are credited with the department’s scientific level and high international reputation. They are the distinguished professors whose names are listed below: