Research and education in chemistry has been conducted at the University of Copenhagen Department of Chemistry since 1778, when the first Laboratorium Chymicum was established. Since then, the chemists have moved several times, usually to better surroundings. In 1962, Universitetets Kemiske Laboratorium moved to its present location in the H.C. Ørsted Institute (HCØ), named after Hans Christian Ørsted who discovered electromagnetism in 1820. It is less well known that H.C. Ørsted was also an able chemist, and that he was in fact the first person to isolate the element aluminium.
The Department of Chemistry is responsible for the teaching of chemistry at all levels at the Faculty of Science: from undergraduate courses in chemistry for students of biology, geology, etc., to Ph.D.-level courses. As a result, the total number of students attending courses at the Department of Chemistry is considerable.
The Department of Chemistry is the largest basic research institute in chemistry in Denmark. It is well equipped with up-to-date instrumentation and computer facilities, as well as basic facilities, such as libraries.
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“The scholar is that man who must take up into himself all the ability of the time, all the contributions of the past, all the hopes of the future. He must be an university of knowledges.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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—Jacques Derrida (b. 1930)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842–1911)