Analytical and Bioanalytical Sciences have become essential for modern society. Environmental protection, sustainable industrial production, food and product safety, clinical diagnosis and pharmacology, forensic sciences, doping control in sport, and many other activities would be untenable without this multi-facetted scientific discipline. Advances in the life sciences, such as the sequencing of the human genome, or the current drive in proteomics or systems biology are dependent on the development of new analytical methods.

A survey carried out by the American Chemical Society in 2012 showed that 14.8% of their members were employed as full time analytical chemists. In a breakdown according to disciplines this was the cohort with the highest proportion (followed by organic chemistry with 10.1%, medicinal/pharmaceutical chemistry with 8.7%, chemical education with 7.4% etc.). Numbers for Switzerland are not available but anecdotal evidence shows that the situation is similar and that there is a shortage of trained analytical chemists.  

Graduates from our department with PhDs in analytical chemistry are not only active in local industry, but also in government institutions such as the cantonal laboratories for food safety, the hospital and the forensic institute of the police force.

At the Department of Chemistry of the University of Basel, the fundamentals of the Analytical Sciences are taught in 4 BSc-level courses: Analytical Chemistry I - IV.  

On the MSc/PhD-level, a course on Bioanalytical Sciences and courses on Applications of Analytical Sciences are held jointly with the University of Applied Sciences/Northwestern Switzerland and other contributors.

MSc- and PhD-projects in the Analytical Sciences are available in the Research Group for Analytical and Bioanalytical Sciences and the NMR facilities of Dr. Häussinger.