PRESENTATION
The Institute of Chemistry (IQ, in Portuguese) is the unit of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul that operates the undergraduate, graduate, extension and research courses in the Chemistry area. Currently, it is one of the most important centres for research and formation of human resources, both in Brazil and in Latin America. The IQ has its origin in the Institute of Industrial Chemistry of the School of Engineering, inaugurated in 1925, to host the Industrial Chemistry course, created in July 17, 1920. During its 48 years of activity, the Institute of Industrial Chemistry developed teaching practices in the areas of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, as well as analysis services and tests. Furthermore, it hosted the Chemistry Division of the Institute of Technology (nowadays the Fundação de Ciência e Tecnologia do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul - CIENTEC); the Institute of Food Technology (now Institute of Food Science and Technology - ICTA); the Radiochemistry Division of the Institute of Physics and the Experimental Institute of Coal.
The Institute of Industrial Chemistry was founded to expand the college education of Chemistry in Rio Grande do Sul, started in 1895 with the foundation of the Free School of Pharmacy and Industrial Chemistry, which later originated the School of Pharmacy of the College of Medicine.
Another important contribution to the expansion of Chemistry in UFRGS took place in the College of Philosophy, with the creation, in 1942, of Teaching and Bachelor courses in Chemistry.
The Institute of Chemistry in UFRGS was created in 1970, with the University Reformation. The new unit was built as a Central Institute, with the responsibility of performing teaching and research activities in Chemistry to the whole University. Its faculty members came from the School of Engineering, the College of Philosophy, the College of Pharmacy, the College of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine and the School of Geology, and were allocated in three departaments: Inorganic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry and Physicochemistry.
In 1978, an initiative of the Coordination Council for Teaching and Research - COCEP, in collaboration with CNPq, created the Special Program in Chemistry. This program was implemented with the objective of boosting the activities related to Chemistry and Chemical Engineering in UFRGS as a response to the demand for research and staff training for the chemical industry, due to the installation of the Petrochemical Center of Rio Grande do Sul. Research activities in strategic areas for the development of the Petrochemical Center, such as Polymers and Catalysis, were implemented in the Institute. Simultaneously, a policy to better qualify faculty members and to bring new researchers to the Institute was implemented, allowing the expansion and diversification of its research areas.
Since 1981, the Institute of Chemistry and its auxiliar office, the Center for Management of Chemical Waste, are installed in a physical area of approximately 14.000 m2 on Campus do Vale. At the present moment, the Institute has a staff of 55 technical-administrative servers and a faculty body of 99 professors, distributed along the Inorganic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry and Physicochemistry departments. The faculty members are graduated (with Doctorate degrees) and work with exclusive dedication.
The Institute hosts the Chemistry course (Bachelor degrees in Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry and Teaching degrees in Chemistry, with day time and night time classes), with approximately 750 enrolled students. In addition to that, disciplines are offered to courses such as Pharmacy, Engineering (Chemical, Food, Materials, Metallurgical, Mechanical, Electrical, Civil, Mining, Control and Automation, Ambiental, Production and Cartography), Physics, Geology, Biomedicine, Biological Sciences, Nutrition and Agronomy. Per semester, approximately 3000 students register in the disciplines offered by the Departments of the Institute.
The Institute of Chemistry offers a Postgraduate Program in Chemistry in the levels of Master’s degree (since 1985), Professional Master’s degree (since 2003) and PhD (since 1998), with approximately 250 graduate students. Furthermore, the Institute participates in interdisciplinary programs: the Postgraduate Program in Materials Science, the Postgraduate Program in Microelectronics and the Postgraduate Program Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology. The main research areas developed by the Institute of Chemistry are polymers, electrochemistry, catalysis, organic synthesis, material chemistry, ionic liquids, analytical and environmental chemistry, oleochemistry, fuels and lubricants, organometallic chemistry, theoretical and computational chemistry, molecular dynamics, solids and surfaces, chemical education and isotopic tracers. In addition to research and teaching labs, the Institute has an Analytic Central (http://www.iq.ufrgs.br/ca/), with a Center for Management of Chemical Waste (http://www.iq.ufrgs.br/cgtrq/), a Fuel Center (http://www.iq.ufrgs.br/cecom/) and a Thermal Analysis laboratory (http://www.iq.ufrgs.br/lamat/), which provide services to the external public.