Organizationally, the department reflects its long-term commitment to interdisciplinary research. About one third of the faculty is engaged in research on surface/catalysis/
colloid chemistry, one third on the chemistry of materials, and one third on the chemistry of living systems. Research groups often include members from different departments who will get their advanced degrees in different programs. So the person at the next bench may be a chemical engineer getting a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering or working on a different aspect of a catalyst system which is also being studied by Ph.D. candidates in organic and physical chemistry.

For teaching and examination purposes, the department is subdivided into the classical areas:Analytical, Biochemistry, Inorganic, Organic, and Physical. Additionally we have students in the area of Physiological Chemistry and in the interdisciplinary Polymer Science and Engineering Program. Each area specifies its own course requirements and writes its own examinations. When it comes to research, those lines evaporate as research groups usually contain members from several areas. This attitude and practice sets Lehigh apart from many graduate programs.

This atmosphere fosters an unusual degree of cooperation and mutual support among graduate students. Graduate students and professors help each other to learn and to attack difficult scientific problems. There is a carefully fostered and maintained attitude of friendly cooperation in the department, which makes it a place where research can be conducted with a minimum of hassles.

The Chemistry Department receives more that $2.2 million each year in research grant and contract commitments, ranking among the top 60 American university Chemistry Departments in outside research funding. Thanks in part to this funding, the majority of chemistry graduate students are supported by research assistantships.

The Chemistry Department is housed in several buildings: the seven-story Seeley G. Mudd Laboratory, the three-story Sinclair Laboratory and the Mountaintop Campus, a facility for the biochemists. The department has 18 faculty members, 60 full-time equivalent graduate students and a varying number of technicians and postdoctoral research scientists. There are 30 academic and research centers where faculty members from across the university conduct interdisciplinary research. Chemistry professors direct the Zettlemoyer Center for Surface Studies and the Materials Research Center. In addition, chemistry faculty and students work in the Center for Polymer Science and Technology, the Center for Marine and Environmental Sciences, the Center for Molecular Bio-science and Biotechnology, the Sherman Fairchild Center for Solid-State Studies, the Energy Research Center, the Emulsion Polymers Institute, Center for Polymer Science and Engineering, and the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Polymer Interfaces.