The development of chemistry in Sri Lanka is tied closely to the development of chemistry at the University of Colombo. For more than half a century, Department of Chemistry has produced excellent academics, researchers and trained many of the leading chemists in the country. and led the growth of chemistry as both an academic discipline and a profession. The Department of Chemistry had been home to many renowned researchers in chemistry working abroad and also to many others working worldwide in their chosen profession. 

         The Department of Chemistry is recognized as one of the best chemistry departments in the country. The department provides intellectual challenge to enjoy academic study and is largely committed to the teaching and learning activity. It has a long standing commitment to teaching and research. The employers recognize the products from the department amongst the very best graduates from higher education institutions in the country.

       Chemistry is taught in the first two years of the faculty of science covering all the basics of General Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry and Organic Chemistry. A practical courses covering all the areas are offered in the first two year Course Units. Based on the performance of the first two years, students are selected to follow the special degree programmes.

Special Degree Programmes: 

      The department continues to offer the traditional special degree programme in chemistry. Recognizing the current requirements of the country, four new inter-disciplinary special degree programmes were commenced. The special degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology was commenced in 1998. This course covers the areas of Biotechnology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. This course is conducted with the assistance of the Departments of Plant Sciences and Zoology of the Faculty of Science and also with the assistance of the Department of Biochemistry of the Faculty of Medicine. A new special degree in Pharmacy was introduced in 2000 as a joint programme with the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo. The special degree in Chemical Biology and Computational Chemistry were also introduced recently.

Postgraduate Programmes:

        The department offers a two year M.Sc. degree  in Analytical Chemistry, M.Sc. in Applied Organic Chemistry and Master in Chemistry Education.

Teaching and Research Facilities:

       The Department of Chemistry possesses a highly qualified Academic staff  and a Support staff to assist in teaching and research.

       The Department maintains a wide array of sophisticated instruments necessary for teaching and research. Amongst the department instruments are  NMR - 200MHz, GC-MS, GC's, HPLC's, Spectrofluorimeter, FT-IR spectrophotometer, UV-Vis Spectrophotometers, Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometers etc. 

      The Department possesses a fully equipped Biochemistry laboratory where teaching and research in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Microbiology are conducted. 

      The Pharmacy laboratory is under construction at present and will be completed and fully equipped in the near future. 

     The Centre for Analytical Research and Development (CARD) laboratory was established in 1980. This facility carries out research in Analytical Chemistry and provides Analytical services to the Industry and other institutions.  

      The Department is also equipped with an IT lab with 15 computers. This facility is mainly utilized to conduct practicals in Molecular Modelling and research in Molecular Modelling and Computational Chemistry. Despite the high cost of molecular modelling packages, the Department of Chemistry managed to acquire few packages which include Gaussian 98, Mopac, Spartan Pro and BioMedCAChe 6.1.   

     All of these facilities are maintained by a support staff with whom students collaborate closely in the conduct of their learning and research. 

     The Department is housed in two buildings: The main lecture theartre (CLT) and the first year chemistry laboratory is in the old historic building. This is connected to the new five story building through a bridge.