DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY

**First-Year Seminar Courses are Not Open to General Enrollment**

The Scientist and the Science: Exploring Effective Scientific Communication Through Graphic Novels (Fall 2020; Veronica Berns)

Clear and concise communication is highly valued in many STEM fields. Whether conveying the technical details of an experiment for a colleague or translating the impact of a study for the public, scientists need to know how to discuss complex ideas with different audiences. This course analyzes the goals of scientific writing by examining texts that represent different levels of communication, including how to use the visual language of comic books for conveying complex scientific ideas.

The Chemistry of Food (Fall 2020; Owen Priest)

In The Chemistry of Food we will explore the chemistry and science of nutrition, cooking, food preservation, flavoring, coloring, and aroma. We will explore the science of salt, sugar & high fructose corn syrup, leavening agents, microwaves, proteins, and fats. What is the science behind genetically modified foods and why is it so controversial? What is celiac disease and gluten sensitivity? Is gluten sensitivity real? What does the science say?

Sustainability Meets Environmental Justice (Winter 2021, Shelby Hatch)

In this course, we will explore how issues of race and class shape our views of these concepts. Northwestern University is currently about halfway through its first five-year strategic sustainability plan. This plan will serve as a starting point for discussing various issues of sustainability such as the built environment, transportation, and resource conservation. We will delve into the chemistry behind sustainable design with a particular eye toward how the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry and Green Engineering are applied.

TBD (Spring 2021, TBD)

Chemistry laboratory techniques applied to materials science and nanotechnology, acid-base chemistry, and chemical kinetics. Planning, data collection, interpretation, and reporting on experiments.  

Must be taken concurrently with the CHEM 132-0 lecture course.

Prerequisite: CHEM 131-0 and CHEM 141-0 (C- or better in both courses). 

The chemistry of polyfunctional compounds of biological and medicinal interest. Modern organic synthesis, bioorganic chemistry, and recent developments in organic chemistry. Must be taken concurrently with CHEM 230-3 lab course. 

Prerequisite: CHEM 210-2 and CHEM 230-2 (C– or better in both courses).

An introduction to basic techniques of instrumental analysis such as gas and high performance liquid chromatography, uv/visible, FTIR and Raman spectroscopy, elemental analysis by ICP atomic emission spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and differential scanning calorimetry. You will learn the theories behind these techniques in class lectures and you will learn to operate these instruments and analyze data from them in the lab.

Prerequisite: CHEM 172-0 and CHEM 182-0 *or* CHEM 152-0 and CHEM 162-0 *or* CHEM 132-0 and CHEM 142-0 *or* CHEM 103-0 and CHEM 123-0 *or* equivalent (C- or better in all listed courses).

In this course, students will gain a solid understanding of the science, economics, and more importantly the environmental impact associated with various technologies, including, but not limited to natural gas, nuclear, wind, etc. Climate change and the potential impact and mitigation will be considered throughout the course.

Taught with CHEM 406. Undergraduates should enroll in CHEM 306, unless they are officially completing the BA/MS program.

This is a survey course designed to show how organic chemistry plays a major role in the design, development, and action of drugs. Although concepts of biology, biochemistry, pharmacy, physiology, and pharmacology will be discussed, it is principally an organic chemistry course with the emphasis on physical interactions and chemical reactions and their mechanisms as applied to biological systems. We will see how drugs are discovered and developed; how they get to their site of action; what happens when they reach the site of action in their interaction with receptors, enzymes, and DNA; how resistance occurs; how the body gets rid of drugs, and what a medicinal chemist can do to avoid having the body eliminate them before they have produced their desired effect. The approaches discussed are those used in the pharmaceutical industry and elsewhere for the discovery of new drugs.

Prerequisite: CHEM 210-3 and CHEM 230-3 *or* CHEM 212-3 *or* consent of instructor.

Taught with CHEM 415. Undergraduates should enroll in CHEM 316, unless they are officially completing the BA/MS program.

Gas laws and properties; kinetic theory; first, second, and third laws; phase equilibria; mixtures, phase diagrams, statistical thermodynamics, kinetics.

Prerequisites: ISP enrollment; CHEM 172 and CHEM 182; Math 281-1,2,3; or consent of department.

Green chemistry is defined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances. This also encompasses the reduction of energy consumption during the aforementioned processes. Green chemistry can be thought to span the life cycle of a chemical product, including its design, manufacture, use, and ultimate disposal. 

This class will seek to develop a broad view on green chemistry, with focus on exploring the economic, health and regulatory considerations which make it a multi-billion dollar enterprise. An emphasis on practical real-world scenarios (case studies) that provide us guidance in making better socially conscience decisions will be made. The course can be viewed primarily as being concerned with the philosophy of chemistry as dictated by our modern world in the 21st Century.

Prerequisite: CHEM 210-3 and CHEM 230-3 *or* CHEM 212-3 (C- or better in all listed courses).

This course focuses on fundamental principles of light-mattering interactions and their applications in advanced experimental spectroscopic methods. In the Spring quarter of 2021, the class will cover time dependent Schrödinger equation, Fermi golden rule, perturbation theory, system-bath interactions, as well as spectroscopic methods (pump-probe, fluorescence upconversion, multidimensional spectroscopy, X-ray absorption/emission and time-resolved terahertz spectroscopies). Application examples will be discussed with emphasis on chemical science