CHEMISTRY
Professors:
David Beveridge; Philip Bolton, Chair ; Joseph W. Bruno;
Albert J. Fry; Joseph L. Knee; Stewart E. Novick; George Petersson; Rex
Pratt; Wallace C. Pringle Jr.; Irina Russu
Associate Professors: Anne
Baranger, Michael Calter, T. David Westmoreland
Adjunct Associate
Professor:
Ganesan Ravishanker, Director of Technology Support Services, Information
Technology Services
GRADUATE PROGRAM
The Department of
Chemistry offers a graduate program leading to the degrees of master of arts
and doctor of philosophy. Currently, there are approximately 32 graduate
students and 13 faculty members. The small size ensures that each student
knows every faculty member and has the opportunity to become well acquainted
with several areas of chemistry. An individualized program of study is set
up for each student, whose progress is monitored by a three-member faculty
advisory committee.
Emphasis within the program is
on developing skills for chemical research rather than on passing a specified
number of examinations. Course requirements, progress examinations, preparation
and defense of research proposals, seminar presentation, and teaching
assignments are all designed with this goal in mind.
An excellent weekly seminar
program affords an opportunity for students to hear and meet informally with a
variety of outstanding speakers. In addition, the annual Peter A. Leermakers
Symposium has brought eminent chemists from Europe, Asia, and the throughout
United States to Wesleyan for a day of intensive examination of a particular
subject. Recent topics have been ""Chemical Insights into Viruses," "Fullerenes:
Progenitors and Sequels," "Molecular Frontiers of AIDS Research,"
"Extraterrestrial Chemistry and Biology," "Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate in
a Changing Global Environment," "Where Chemistry Meets Art and Archeology,"
"Metals in Medicine," and "The Molecular Basis of Materials Science."
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEGREE
The
degree of doctor of philosophy is awarded as the result of the demonstration of
originality and scholarly achievement. It demands intensive specialization in
one field as well as broad knowledge of related areas.
Course requirements are
intended to achieve two basic goals. (1) Acquisition of background knowledge.
A central core of material is basic for all well-trained chemists. Therefore,
graduate students are initially expected to develop or demonstrate knowledge of
an appropriate one-semester course in each of the areas of organic chemistry,
inorganic chemistry, biochemistry, physical chemistry, and quantum chemistry.
(2) Continued scholarly growth. Graduate students are expected to take
one course or its equivalent every semester. This may be a regular advanced
course in chemistry or a related discipline, a seminar, or a tutorial designed
to meet the special needs of an individual student.
Progress examinations
are given approximately six times each academic year. Based on articles in the
current literature, these examinations are designed to encourage graduate
students to keep up with the latest developments in chemistry. In addition, they
are a valuable tool for monitoring the expected steady growth of a student's
ability to read the chemical literature critically as well as identifying any
areas where he or she is deficient.
A proposal for original
research,
which involves a creative idea and its exploitation, is one of the most
important parts of the entire graduate program in chemistry. Each student is
required to originate, present in both written and oral form, and defend a
research proposal in the second year.
Teaching skills and
assisting duties are given to each student as a means of developing
communication skills. As these develop, more responsible and demanding tasks
will be assigned whenever possible.
A one-hour seminar talk
is expected of each student once a year. For first-year graduate students, this
seminar will be scheduled in the second semester. In addition, there will be a
number of shorter, less formal talks in classes, research group meetings, and
special-interest discussion groups, all of which will contribute to a student's
ability to work up, organize, and present a scientific topic.
Languages are a useful
part of the scientist's total knowledge in many ways. Therefore, a reading
knowledge of at least one foreign language is required, as well as a
demonstrated proficiency in modern computer techniques. The language requirement
may be waived at the discretion of the committee.
The thesis research and
dissertation – an original contribution worthy of publication – is the
single most important requirement. The candidate will have the opportunity to
present his or her work in a talk at the departmental colloquium.
CHEMICAL
PHYSICS
Guiding Committee:
Lutz Hüwel, Physics; Joseph Knee, Chemistry; Stewart E. Novick,
Chemistry; Brian Stewart, Physics
Beginning students in the
chemistry or physics graduate programs may petition their department for
admission to the interdisciplinary program in chemical physics. The philosophy
underlying the program is that the solution to contemporary problems must
increasingly be sought not within a single traditional specialty but from the
application of different disciplines to particular problems. Students in the
program will pursue a course of study and research that will familiarize them
with both the Physics and Chemistry departments and in particular, with those
areas of overlapping interest that we broadly categorize as chemical physics.
Requirements for the degree
of doctor of philosophy.
Students entering the program will choose an interdepartmental
committee to oversee their progress toward the PhD degree. Students will still
receive a PhD in either chemistry or physics.
Courses. Chemical
physics students will be expected to take courses from both departments. The
core of the program of courses consists of quantum chemistry (offered by the
Chemistry Department), quantum mechanics (offered by either department),
electrodynamics (offered by the Physics Department), statistical mechanics
(either department), and mathematical physics (Physics Department). For details
of the course offerings, see the course listings under chemistry and physics.
Seminars. Students
will participate in the weekly chemical physics seminar series and will be
expected to present at least one talk per year.
Examinations. During
the first two years, students will be examined on their general knowledge of
chemical physics, including the current literature. In the second year, an oral
exam will be given, based in part on an original research proposal. At this
point, a formal decision will be made on whether to admit the student to
candidacy for the PhD.
Research.
Students
in chemical physics may do research under the direction of any member of either
department. To aid the student in this selection and to sample the flavor of
research activities in both departments, students will participate briefly in
the research of each department. During the first year, students will rotate
among as many as two research groups from each department, spending between four
and six weeks in each group. It is anticipated that a student will be able to
make a formal choice of a research advisor by the end of the first academic year
at Wesleyan.
MOLECULAR
BIOPHYSICS
Guiding Committee:
David L. Beveridge, Chemistry; Ishita Mukerji,
Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
The Chemistry Department
participates in an interdisciplinary program of graduate study in molecular
biophysics with the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry (MB&B) and
the Department of Physics. The program provides a course of study and research
that overlaps the disciplinary boundaries of chemistry, physics, biology, and
molecular biology and is designed for students with undergraduate background in
any one of these areas. Students in the program are enrolled in one of the
participating departments and fulfill canonical requirements of the department.
In addition, they take advanced courses in molecular biophysics and pursue
dissertation research with one of the faculty in the program. Centerpieces of
the program are the weekly interdepartmental journal club in molecular
biophysics and the annual research retreat. Both activities bring together
students, research associates, and faculty from all participating departments
and foster interdisciplinary collaborative projects.
The molecular biophysics
program receives special support from the National Institutes of Health in the
form of a training grant. The program is affiliated with interest groups such as
the New York Structural Biology (NYSB) and the New York Bioinformatics and
Computational Biology (NYBCB) groups. All students are encouraged to join and
attend national meetings of the Biophysical Society.
Students
interested in this program apply for admission to the Chemistry Department or to
the other two participating departments. Application forms for these departments
are available at
www.wesleyan.edu/chem.
CHEM500 Graduate Pedagogy
Identical with: BIOL500
Credit: 0.50
Fall 2005
CHEM501/502 Individual Tutorial,
Graduate
Supervised reading or other
advance study in particular fields of chemistry.
Credit: 1.00
CHEM507 Molecular Biophysics
Journal Club I
Identical with: CHEM307
Credit: 0.50
Fall 2005
CHEM508 Molecular Biophysics
Journal Club II
Identical with: CHEM308
Credit: 0.50
Spring 2006
CHEM511/512 Group Tutorial,
Graduate
Informal seminars in various
topics as the need arises.
Credit: 1.00
CHEM517 Foundations of Science:
Intellectual, Cultural, Personal
An interdisciplinary graduate
seminar in which the nature of science as a discipline and way of gaining new
knowledge about the natural world is the main topic. The class will consider
the 17th century rise of science in Western civilization in the context of
cosmology and the contributions of Bacon, Descartes, Galileo and Newton,
comparing and contrasting the science developments in the Eastern and Asian
worlds of the same period. The influence of science on other disciplines will
be discussed in the context of the 18th century French enlightenment and the
scientism of the philosophers. The rise of American science will use Ben
Franklin's early experiments with electricity and the hydrophobic effect. A
compare-and-contrast of the underpinnings of the physical sciences and the life
sciences will be studied, with Darwin's theory and its subsequent ramifications
as a case study. Finally, the nature of the paradigm shift from classical to
modern science will be studied in the context of: a) Einstein's theory of
relativity, b) the discovery of quantum mechanics by Planck, Bohr, de Brogle,
Schroedinger and Heisenberg, c) the rise and assimilation of molecular biology,
and d) the conflicts in the academy that defined the "science" wars circa
1990's.
Credit: 0.50
CHEM519 Structural Mechanisms of
Protein-Nucleic Acid Interactions
Students have five days after the
first day of class to add this course. This course focuses on recent advances
in the understanding of the structural basis of the recognition of nucleic acids
by proteins. Macromolecular systems to be discussed include: site-specific DNA
endonucleases, topoisomerases, the histone fold, helicases, site-specific
recombinases, nuclear RNA-protein complexes, tRNA-binding proteins, the
ribosome.
Credit: 0.50
CHEM521 Chemistry Symposia I
Weekly seminars by distinguished
national and international chemists.
Credit: 0.25
Fall 2005
CHEM522 Chemistry Symposia II
Weekly seminars by distinguished
national and international chemists.
Credit: 0.25
Spring 2006
CHEM523 Energetics and
Mechanisms of Protein-Nucleic Acids Interactions
This course focuses on the recent
advances in our understanding of the biophysical basis of protein-nucleic acid
interactions. Topics will include informational and mechanistic aspects of
nucleic acids recognition by proteins, the statistical thermodynamics of
molecular switches in gene expression, and complementarity and intermolecular
contacts in protein-nucleic acid complexes. The course aims at providing a
coherent physical framework for current developments in molecular biology and
related fields.
Credit: 1.00
CHEM525 Energetics of
Protein-Nucleic Acid Interactions
This is a half-semester course.
It will start the second half of the semster on
Monday, March 23, 1998.
Students have five days after the first day of class to add this course. This
course focuses on the thermodynamics of binding proteins, drugs and other
ligands to nucleic acids. Topics include cooperativity in binding of proteins
to DNA, statistical thermodynamics of molecular switches in gene regulation,
energetic linkages in binding of ligands to nucleic acids. The relationships
between thermodynamics of protein-nucleic acid interactions and molecular
mechanisms of gene expression are emphasized.
Credit: 0.50
CHEM540 Advanced Quantum
Chemistry
This course covers many electron
wave function theory, operator formalisms and second quantization; fundamentals
of restricted and unrestricted Hartree-Fock theory; electron correlation
methods, pair and coupled pair theories; many-body perturbation theory and
coupled-cluster theory. Suitable for advanced graduate students in physical
chemistry and chemical physics.
Credit: 1.00
CHEM545 High Resolution
Molecular Spectroscopy
This is a lecture/discussion
course in various selected topics in modern high resolution spectroscopy.
Microwave spectroscopy, angular momentum theory, electronic spectroscopy of
diatomic molecules and vibrational normal mode analysis, and other topics
dependent upon class interest will be covered.
Credit: 1.00
CHEM547 Seminar in Chemical
Physics
Weekly seminars presented jointly
with the Physics Department under the auspices of the chemical physics program.
These informal seminars will be presented by students, faculty and outside
visitors on current research and other topics of interest.
Credit: 0.25
Fall 2005
CHEM548 Seminar in Chemical
Physics
Identical with: PHYS588
Credit: 0.25
Spring 2006
CHEM557 Seminar in Organic and
Inorganic Chemistry
Weekly presentations and
discussions based on the current literature.
Credit: 0.25
Fall 2005
CHEM558 Seminar in Organic and
Inorganic Chemistry
Weekly presentations and
discussions based on the current literature.
Credit: 0.25
Spring 2006
CHEM563 Group Theory & Physical
Methods
The focus of the course is the
development of quantitative symmetry concepts and the use of group theoretical
techniques to generate semi-quantitative MO diagrams, to understand symmetry
control of reactions and to derive selection rules for spectroscopic
transitions. The major physical methods for characterization of ground and
excited states of molecules will be discussed. Familiarity with basic quantum
chemistry is assumed.
Credit: 1.00
CHEM570 Multi-Dimensional
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)
spectroscopy is a widely used technique in molecular biology, chemistry and
biochemistry. This course presents basic principles and experimental methods in
NMR. Description of most NMR experiments is based on the spin product operator
formalism. Two-, three-, and four-dimensional NMR experiments useful for
chemical and biochemical structure determination are emphasized.
Credit: 0.50
CHEM587 Seminar in Biological
Chemistry
Weekly presentations and
discussions based on current research.
Credit: 0.25
Fall 2005
CHEM588 Seminar in Biological
Chemistry
Weekly presentations and
discussions based on current research.
Credit: 0.25
Spring 2006
CHEM591/592 Advanced Research
for Graduates
Topic to be arranged in
consultation with the tutor.
Credit: 1.00
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