Chemistry Graduate Curriculum

Introduction

This document is concerned with the core and normally-offered advanced courses within the graduate Chemistry curriculum, those being 6**, 7** and 8** level courses. It should be understood that periodically minor modifications to the existing curriculum are necessary due to:

• the addition of new courses reflecting changing composition of the faculty and their interests;
• elimination of specialized courses which are not applicable to current departmental research interests;
• regularizing the schedule of offerings of required and high-demand specialty courses.

Ideally, a well-prepared entering graduate student should be able to acquire the necessary knowledge and analytical skills, within the first full and half year of the curriculum, to pass the Ph.D. Qualifying Examination during the second semester of their second full year of graduate study. However, it is recognized that, for many of our entering graduate students, the reality of their training does not correspond to the ideal. In those cases, up to a year of full-time course work at the 4** or 5** level may be required prior to commencement of the main graduate level curriculum.

Current Course Requirements

At present, the course requirements for the Ph.D. in Chemistry involve courses in three categories:

• core courses
• elective courses
• graduate chemistry seminar

The core courses for each area are listed below. In addition, electives in the different areas are also listed. Students must take three core courses, each from a different area and nine credit hours of electives of their choosing, which may include other core courses. Students wishing to take courses from other departments that are not listed below must get prior approval from their guidance committee or the GPD.

Analytical: Core courses: CHEM 701, Advanced Analytical Chemistry; CHEM 703, Chromatographic Separations by HPLC and GC; CHEM 705, Applied Spectroscopy

Electives: CHEM 704, HPLC and GC Laboratory; CHEM 741, Stable Isotope Chemistry; CHEM 748, Environmental Chemistry Laboratory

Biochemistry: Core courses: CHEM 543, Intermediate Biochemistry; CHEM 553, Essentials of Toxicology; CHEM 765, Advanced Biochemistry;

Electives: CHEM 544, Intermediate Biochemistry Laboratory; CHEM 726, Medicinal Chemistry; CHEM 769, Physical Biochemistry; BIOL 507, Molecular and Immunological Techniques; BIOL 509, Immunology; BIOL 523, Cellular/Molecular Biology; BIMD 848, Advanced Cell Biology;

Environmental: Core courses: CHEM 701, Advanced Analytical Chemistry; CHEM 703, Chromatographic Separations by HPLC and GC; CHEM 743, Organic Geochemistry; CHEM 749, Environmental Chemistry

Electives: CHEM 741, Stable Isotope Chemistry; CHEM 748 Environmental Chemistry Laboratory; OCEN 510, Chemical Oceanography; OCEN 612, Marine Geochemistry; GEOL 514, Geochemistry; BIOL 632, Marine Microbiology

Organic: Core courses: CHEM 723, Modern Synthetic Organic Chemistry; CHEM 725, Physical Organic Chemistry; CHEM 743, Organic Geochemistry

Electives: CHEM 705, Applied Spectroscopy; CHEM 726, Medicinal Chemistry; CHEM 727, Computational Chemistry; CHEM 765, Advanced Biochemistry

Physical: Core courses: CHEM 755, Computational Chemistry; CHEM 779, Kinetics and Thermodynamics

Electives: CHEM 725, Physical Organic Chemistry; CHEM 775, Physical Biochemistry

The graduate seminar consists of Chemistry 802 and 803. Chem 802 is one credit and graded pass/fail while a letter grade is given for Chem 803 (3 credits). One of these courses must be taken each semester by all students.

Example Curricula

Below are sample curricula that students might choose when specializing in a particular area.

Analytical Emphasis: Core courses:CHEM 701 (analytical core), CHEM 703 (environmental core), CHEM 553 (biochemistry core). Electives: CHEM 704, HPLC and GC Laboratory; CHEM 705, Applied Spectroscopy; and CHEM 748, Environmental Chemistry Laboratory

Biochemistry Emphasis: Core courses: CHEM 705 (analytical core), CHEM 767 (biochemistry core), CHEM 755 (physical chemistry core) Electives: CHEM 765, Advanced Biochemistry; CHEM 769 Nucleic Acids Biochemistry; and BIOL 523, Cellular/Molecular Biology

Biogeochemistry/Environmental Emphasis: Core courses: CHEM 701 (analytical core), CHEM 749 (environmental core); CHEM 743 (organic core) Electives: CHEM 748, Environmental Chemistry Laboratory; OCEN 510, Chemical Oceanography; and OCEN 612, Marine Geochemistry

Organic Emphasis: Core courses: CHEM 755 (physical chemistry core), CHEM 767 (biochemistry core), CHEM 725 (organic core) Electives: CHEM 705, Applied Spectroscopy; CHEM 723, Modern Synthetic Organic Chemistry; and CHEM 726, Medicinal Chemistry

The following courses may not be applied toward the core courses or elective courses for the Ph.D. in Chemistry