催化，腐蚀和摩擦是在固体表面上发生的常见过程的一些示例。表面化学领域试图阐明和理解作为这种现象基础的基本化学原理。在Stony Brook，我们正在积极研究表面的电子和几何结构如何在表面介导的过程（例如有机金属前体中的金属的催化和化学气相沉积）过程中影响其化学选择性和反应性。另外，我们有兴趣了解在大气和金属蚀刻反应中高能离子与表面之间的相互作用。可以使用大量先进技术来证明反应表面在原子水平上的几何结构和电子结构。使用俄歇电子能谱（AES）和高分辨率电子能量损失谱（HREELS）等技术来确定表面的组成，而紫
The Department of Chemistry, within the College of Arts and Sciences, offers courses of study leading to the degrees of Master of Arts in Teaching Chemistry, Master of Science, and Doctor of Philosophy. Students in the M.A.T. program must register through the School of Professional Development. A student in the Ph.D. program may choose dissertation research in any one of the diverse areas of chemistry represented by the interests of the program faculty, or may choose an interdisciplinary topic under the guidance of a faculty member in another program. Coordinated activities exist with several programs, and include optional concentrations in chemical physics and chemical biology. <br><br>Catalysis, corrosion, and friction are a few examples of familiar processes that occur on solid surfaces. The field of surface chemistry tries to unravel and understand the basic chemical principles that underly such phenomena. At Stony Brook we are actively researching how the electronic and geometric structure of a surface affects its chemical selectivity and reactivity during surface-mediated processes such as catalysis and the chemical vapor deposition of metals from organometallic precursors. In addition, we are interested in understanding the interactions between energetic ions and surfaces in both atmospheric and metal-etching reactions. An arsenal of sophisticated techniques is available to prove both the geometric and electronic structures of a reacting surface on an atomic level. Techniques such as Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and high-resolution, electron energy loss spectroscopy (HREELS) are used to determine the composition of a surface, while ultraviolet and X-ray photons are commonly used to eject photoelectrons from a surface (which are energy analyzed) yielding electronic structure information. Another technique, low-energy electron diffraction (LEED), exploits the wave nature of electrons and is used to help determine the geometric structure of a surface. These techniques, routinely used at Stony Brook, are complemented by the powerful extended- and near-edge X-ray absorption fine-structure techniques (EXAFS and NEXAFS), available at the National Synchrotron Light Source at nearby Brookhaven National Laboratory.