The origin of modern chemistry

“Chemistry widely spreads his hands into human affairs,” - this catchphrase by Mikhail Lomonosov is currently especially relevant. Chemistry today is food and medicine, fuel and clothing, fertilizers and paints, analysis and synthesis, organization of production and quality control of its products, the preparation of drinking water and the disposal of wastewater, environmental monitoring and the creation of a safe human environment. "To master such a volume of knowledge is impossible!" - exclaim the pessimist. "There is nothing impossible for a person who is keen on his work," - we reply. And if you decide to connect your destiny with chemistry, we are waiting for you at our faculty. Here you will receive a fundamental university education, which will allow you not only to easily adapt to any workplace, but also become a professional in your field.

Along with the traditional areas of application of the forces of chemical specialists, chemical expertise is becoming increasingly important in society. Indeed, at present, the number and variety of objects of expertise has markedly increased: water, air, soil, food and industrial products, pharmaceuticals and waste from various enterprises, as well as much more. Establishing the type of product, the fact and method of falsifying it, monitoring the cleanliness of the environment, forensic examination is far from a complete list of what an expert chemist should be able to do.

The results obtained by expert experts are a powerful source of search, diagnostic and evidence information, which helps to establish objective truth in the investigation of emergencies, the implementation of eco-analytical, sanitary-epidemiological and customs control. Specialists of this profile are needed by the internal affairs agencies and the FSB, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Emergencies, the customs service, and departments with environmental functions. Meanwhile, specialists in this field are practically not being trained in our country. Therefore, the chemical department of our university begins training specialists in the field of chemical expertise. Each year, 50 freshmen begin their student life at our faculty, and in total about 250 students study at the faculty. In junior courses, students study, in addition to chemical disciplines, higher mathematics, computer science, physics, socioeconomic disciplines, a foreign language.

After the 3rd course, students voluntarily choose a department where they will receive the corresponding specialization. There are three departments at the faculty. The Department of Analytical Chemistry and Petroleum Chemistry, abbreviated as AHN, (head of the department - Professor V.I. Vershinin) deals with environmental issues, helps some enterprises of the petrochemical complex solve production problems. It is the department of the Academy of Chemical Sciences, the only one in the city, that begins the preparation of chemists in the field of chemical expertise. The department has postgraduate studies in the field of "analytical chemistry" and "methodology of teaching chemistry." The Department of Inorganic Chemistry is headed by Professor V.F. Borbat. Here you will be introduced to the problems of protecting metals from corrosion, cleaning wastewater from heavy metals, teach various electrochemical methods of analysis and much more. As a result, you will receive a specialization in electrochemistry. In addition, the department begins training specialists in the field of ecology and environmental protection, which is so important for our city. Students who have a penchant for scientific work can continue it at the department, enrolling in graduate school in the specialties of "physical chemistry" and "electrochemistry".

At the Department of Organic Chemistry, headed by Professor R.S. Sagitullin, they are synthesizing new organic compounds, are developing fundamentally new methods for producing drugs, dyes, antioxidants, etc. Students in this department receive a specialization in Organic Chemistry. And just as in the other two departments, there is a graduate school specializing in organic chemistry. In addition to the above specializations, students can optionally receive another, additional specialization - "chemistry teaching methodology." This specialization will be especially useful for those students who, after graduation, decide to engage in teaching work in schools, technical schools, universities. Theoretical knowledge acquired by students in lectures is fixed in educational laboratories. The faculty has rather large study areas, a good fleet of modern devices, and has its own computer class. The final training at the faculty is a thesis. The universality of the training of our specialists allows them to quickly master themselves at any workplace. You will meet graduates of the chemical faculty at industrial enterprises in the city, in certification laboratories, SES, environmental control, universities, technical schools, and schools. We hope to meet you among the applicants of our faculty. And if the time “X” has not yet come for you, or you have not yet decided on the choice of a profession, come to our Chemical School, which operates on the basis of faculty for students of grades 10-11.

Here, under the guidance of experienced teachers, you will get a real opportunity to expand and deepen your knowledge of chemistry, get acquainted with the basics of analysis and synthesis, and do scientific work on modern equipment. The current economic conditions are such that enterprises, in order to withstand competition, must constantly improve their technologies and forms of product quality control, and for this they just need highly qualified chemists. At the same time, the enterprise should not pollute the environment, because otherwise you will have to pay huge fines, so it’s better to have good analytical chemists in the staff who would monitor the content of harmful substances and control their emissions. So there will always be a demand for specialists with university chemical education. And gradually, in our city, the air will become cleaner, and the water will be lighter, and the bread will taste better.

"Экономика и социум" №10(65) 2019