Unlike large research universities, Lawrence Technological University is first and foremost an institution dedicated to teaching. The education and mentoring of students is the principal function of all Lawrence Tech faculty. The faculty of the Department of Natural Sciences is fully committed to this purpose.
As an undergraduate student in Natural Sciences at Lawrence Tech, you will:
- Receive individual attention from all the faculty in your discipline.
- Each will know you by face and by name, long before you graduate.
- You will never be taught by a graduate student teaching assistant—even in your earliest laboratory courses.
- A member of the teaching faculty will always be the principal supervisor in the laboratory, sometimes assisted by advanced Lawrence Tech undergraduates.
- Adjunct faculty will teach in the advanced courses only when they bring a special expertise to the program.
- You will always be advised by the chair of the department or by a director or coordinator of your program.
The university is committed to providing the department and its students with the advanced instrumentation that they are likely to use in their future careers. All the instrumentation is available for undergraduate use and is often introduced at Lawrence Tech far earlier than at other institutions.
Multiple tracks of study are available in both chemistry and physics to enable students to tailor their programs to specific career goals such as biophysics or material sciences. Details of these programs can be found under the descriptions of the individual programs.
Natural Sciences students are encouraged to pursue co-op and internship opportunities in industry while earning college credit. In several programs an independent senior project is required for graduation. These projects can be carried out by a student individually or as a member of an interdisciplinary team, both of which are expected of technical workers in an industrial setting.
