Faculty Job Openings

We are excited to welcome applications for our TWO Assistant Professor tenure-track positions in Physical Chemistry and Biochemistry. Please submit your application materials at our HR website: https://hr.richmond.edu/careers/index.html

The University of Richmond is a Predominantly Undergraduate Institution (PUI) and the highest degree awarded by the Department of Chemistry is the Bachelor of Science.

Devotion to Teaching

In support of the mission of the University of Richmond, the Department of Chemistry fosters scientific literacy in all students. The goal of our program is to promote all students’ ability to think critically and analytically and to communicate their knowledge of scientific issues effectively. We achieve this objective through small class sizes (typically 10-30 students) and substantial opportunities for one-on-one interaction between faculty and students, including research and informal mentoring activities. 

Introductory chemistry courses provide a scientific foundation for our majors (including chemistry majors and biochemistry and molecular biology majors) as well as pre-professional students and students who major in other sciences. We engage non-science majors in applied courses that focus on a variety of chemistry-related themes, including chemistry of cooking, art and science, and forensics. Upper-level courses and advanced electives expand the breadth of our majors’ experience, including courses in organic reaction mechanisms, organic synthesis, medicinal chemistry, synthetic methods, energy, organometallics, spectroscopy, and chemical biology. 

Development and implementation of our general chemistry, organic chemistry, and inorganic chemistry laboratory sequences are overseen by two Ph.D.-level faculty directors, who work beside tenure-stream faculty to teach and design effective, innovative laboratory experiences. 

Importantly, our teaching spills over into the research laboratory where undergraduates both train in modern techniques and perform the experiments that advance our science, both during the academic year and the summer research period.

In the classroom and the laboratory, we endeavor to create a supportive community that is committed to helping all students thrive.

The Department of Chemistry partners with the Department of Biology to oversee the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology program. This interdisciplinary major features many courses found in the individual Biology and Chemistry programs plus a number of upper-level classes geared specifically to students interested in the interface of the two fields.

Commitment to Research with Undergraduates

The University of Richmond and the Department of Chemistry provide extraordinary support for undergraduate research experiences throughout the academic year and during an intensive summer research period each year. Our faculty oversee a variety of exciting research programs, both individually and through collaborations, that have led to many recent publications and grants.

Our suite of instrumentation is managed and maintained by a Ph.D. Director of Instrumentation and rivals the facilities of larger research universities. Compute cycles for our high-performance computer cluster are available through our centralized compute resources, which is staffed for sys admin/research support. Chemistry members have access to the Biological Imaging Lab overseen by a lab manager in the Department of Biology. The Department of Chemistry has site licenses to ChemDraw, Gaussian, Spartan, and PyMOL. The department provides some research related supplies to faculty with no charge.  

Student summer research salary and supply money are provided by departmental endowments, internal grants, and external grants. Faculty receive summer mentoring stipends dependent on the number of students they choose to mentor. Many students are awarded travel funds to present at regional and national conferences and/or additional supply monies during the academic year through the Undergraduate Research Committee.

Additional University Resources

  • The School of Arts and Sciences provides annual funding for faculty domestic and international travel.
  • Faculty teaching and research support is available through the Faculty Hub.
  • The Weinstein Center provides faculty and students support in 3D large format poster printing through the Technology Learning Center and the development of programming skills through the Quantitative Resource Center.
  • The Boatwright Library has significant access to journal subscriptions with additional resources located easily via interlibrary loan. In addition, the library is part of a consortium that allows for open-access publishing for free in ACS, RSC, Springer, PLoS, T&F, and Wiley journals.
  • Tenure-track faculty are guaranteed a 1-semester research leave after a successful 3rd year review. After tenure, faculty are granted sabbatical leave on a seven-year cycle. Options for applying for enhanced or full-year sabbaticals are available.
  • The Grants Office provides assistance in finding and applying for external grant funding.
  • All new faculty are provided an office setup that includes a desktop or laptop computer system (PC or Mac platform, consistent with current University standard configurations) plus office furniture. Each office is equipped with standard phone and network connections.
  • Faculty have free memberships to the Weinstein Fitness Center.
  • There is a tuition remission and exchange program that extends to partners and children.
  • A summary of all UR benefits can be found here.

Expectations

The successful candidate can expect to contribute either a 3/2 or 2/3 teaching load each academic year, including of a mixture of lectures (20-30 students) and laboratory sections (12-20 students) during the 2026-2027 session. Opportunities to teach and design other courses will follow in subsequent terms. During the first year, the assistant professor will begin to assemble a research group of undergraduates and will mentor those students during the summer research periods and future academic terms, with the long-term goals of securing external funding and publishing high-quality research with undergraduate coauthors.

Tentative Timeline

Review of applications will begin on September 12, 2025. We anticipate on-campus interviews for selected candidates will occur in October and November 2025.  

Queries about the Physical Chemistry tenure-track position should be directed to Carol Parish (cparish@richmond.edu) and queries about the Biochemistry tenure-track position should be directed to Julie Pollock (jpollock@richmond.edu).