Founded in 1933, the School of Chemistry at South China Normal University (SCNU) is one of the oldest schools at SCNU with rapid development momentum. Recent years Chemistry has become a key discipline of the national “Project 211”, and one of the key disciplines for “High Level University Construction Project of Guangdong Province”. Currently, the college has 123 faculty members, 88 of whom are full-time teachers, 1163 full-time undergraduates, 381 postgraduate students, and 38 doctoral students

The mission of the college at the SCNU is to conduct world-class, groundbreaking research in the chemical sciences as well as to offer the highest quality of education to undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral associates. Our leadership in research includes the traditional areas of physical, analytical, inorganic, and organic chemistry, and has rapidly evolved to encompass energy chemistry, medicinal chemistry, materials chemistry and chemical education. Our emphasis on collaboration connects us to colleagues around the country, and throughout the world.

The college offers three undergraduate majors: Chemistry (Normal), Material Chemistry, and New Energy Materials and Devices, with well-established reputation nation-wide. The textbook Organic Chemistry (the Fourth Edition, edited by Zeng Zhaoqiong) was awarded the second prize of Excellent Textbooks by the State Education Commission. The Fifth Edition (edited by Li Jingning) was listed in the national planning textbooks of the 11th and 12th Five-year Plan by the Ministry of Education. It is also one of the widely used organic chemistry textbooks for colleges and universities in China. Physical Chemistry, edited by Professor Jiang Lincai, a national model worker and former member of the National Teaching Guidance Committee, has been revised to the fourth edition as a physical chemistry textbook in use at present.

The discipline of chemistry at our college have entered top 3.7 ‰ of the World ESI as of Nov. 2020. Currently, the discipline of Chemistry owns more than 20 research and teaching center in terms of national, provincial and municipal levels, including National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center of MPTES in High Energy and Safety LIBs, and the Key Laboratory of Theoretical Chemistry of Environment (Ministry of Education).