The major theme of research in physical chemistry is Dynamics, Photochemistry and Applied Spectroscopy ie the interactions of molecules with each other, with solid or liquid surfaces, or with light. These studies provide profound insights into the nature of chemistry at its most fundamental level. They are also of direct practical benefit in a diversity of fields, ranging from environmentally significant reactions in the atmosphere, surfaces that are important in the depths of interstellar dust clouds, through probes of combustion and technological plasmas, to the creation of new diamond surfaces and the development of sensitive analytical probes based on them.

see also: applied, chemistry, dynamics, photochemistry, research