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Doctoral study in chemistry at Stanford University prepares students for research and teaching careers with diverse emphases in basic, life, medical, physical, energy, materials, and environmental sciences. The right catalyst can turn ordinary water or even CO2 into a clean-burning fuel, the wrong one will quickly degrade performance in solar-cell or electronics manufacturing. In biology, one key enzyme catalyzes the reduction of O2 to H2O in human respiration, another promotes the inflammatory response of celiac disease. Stanford breakthroughs in catalysis advance understanding of reactions essential to industrial production, health and the environment. Ongoing efforts put this knowledge to work, harnessing catalysis to make chemical bonds in new ways and create new forms of matter. At the forefront of new approaches for generating and storing energy, Stanford chemists are developing strategies for extracting electrons from chemical fuels and injecting them into carbon dioxide as a means of storing chemical energy and creating new chemical intermediates from sunlight and carbon dioxide.