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About Us

Mission & Goals

Mission

The mission of the Department of Chemistry is to teach chemistry as a scientific discipline whose focus is understanding and conceptualizing the behavior of the physical universe. In undertaking this mission via quality teaching in the classroom, laboratory, and research environment, the department will prepare students to take advantage of their knowledge of chemistry as fully as possible.

This mission is addressed specifically to four groups of students:

  1. Students who wish to broaden their knowledge of the physical world by studying chemistry;
  2. Undergraduate students whose major includes a strong chemistry component;
  3. Undergraduate students whose major is chemistry and
  4. Post-baccalaureate students who seek advanced expertise in selected areas of chemistry.

Goals

Our goal is to provide the opportunity for students to develop their knowledge of and skills in general, analytical, biological, inorganic, organic, physical, and polymer chemistry. The extent to which these skills will be developed depends on the needs of the students in the various categories above.

Objectives: General Chemistry

  1. Provide students with a unifying microscopic model which explains the macroscopic observations of mass and energy transformations. (At this level, the model is presented in a non-rigorous and semi-quantitative form.)

  2. Provide students with an awareness of the periodic relationships among the elements and their compounds, so that knowledge of general trends will allow students to make reasonable predictions about chemical behavior.

  3. Provide students with an appropriate level of computational skill and the ability to analyze, apply, synthesize, and comprehend the concepts of modern chemical models and their application to other disciplines.

  4. Provide students in the laboratory with direct experience of the macroscopic transformations which are explained by the microscopic models. The laboratory experience should provide an opportunity to develop the following skills:
    • Making observations,
    • Making precise measurements,
    • Keeping records, and

    • Manipulating equipment.

  5. Provide students with the fundamental terminology and concepts of the current model of chemical processes thus enabling students to:

    • Use chemical concepts in daily living,
    • Understand the relationship between societal issues and the scientific disciplines,
    • Make informed professional and career decisions.

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Objectives: Analytical Chemistry

  1. Provide students with an awareness of the factors pertinent to all analytical methods, including considerations of stoichiometric calculations, sampling, sensitivity and detection limit, statistical treatment of data, sources of error, and equilibrium constants.

  2. Expose students to a wide range of classical (gravimatric, titrimetric) methods and instrumental methods of analysis (particularly electrical and optical methods) and methods of chemical separation (particularly chromatographic methods).

  3. Provide students with an opportunity to have a safe hands-on experience in the laboratory with a wide range of analytical methods, including experience with at least several state-of-the-art instruments.

  4. Foster quantitative thinking all laboratory procedures

  5. Introduce students to the literature of analytical chemistry

Objectives: Biochemistry

  1. Provide a basic understanding of the structure and metabolism of proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, and nucleic acids in eukaryotes.

  2. Place emphasis on the quantitative and mechanistic aspects of structure and kinetics in the advanced courses.

  3. Introduce students to the literature of biochemistry.

Objectives: Inorganic Chemistry

  1. Provide a basis, in terms of atomic and molecular parameters, to describe chemical bonding and structure.

  2. Provide an introduction to the techniques and modern physical methods of chemistry required to prepare inorganic compounds and elucidate their structures and properties.

  3. Classify chemical reactions either by general categories or specific mechanisms.

  4. Furnish an appreciation, using kinetic and thermodynamic principles, for chemical reactivity and its relationship to structure and bonding.

  5. Introduce students to the literature of inorganic chemistry.

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Objectives: Organic Chemistry

  1. Provide students with a fundamental understanding of the mathematical and physical principles which underlie modern chemistry, and the advanced experimental techniques which quantify physical properties.

  2. Provide students with a detailed understanding of the modern microscopic model of the universe.

  3. Provide students with an understanding of chemistry as a continuing process of building models, making predictions with the models, and comparing the predictions to experimental observations.

  4. Principal topic areas are:

    • Quantum Chemistry
    • Thermodynamics
    • Statistical Mechanics
    • Spectroscopy
    • Kinetics and molecular dynamics

  5. Introduce students to the literature of physical chemistry

Objectives: Polymer Chemistry

  1. Provide students with an overview of the structure and composition of polymers, types of polymerization, and a working knowledge of polymer nomenclature.

  2. Provide students with a fundamental understanding of the physical characteristics of polymers (crystallinity, polymer solubility, elasticity, flow behavior, etc.) and methods of polymer characterization.

  3. Introduce students to polymer processing techniques (molding, extrusion, calendaring, etc.)

  4. Introduce students to the applications of polymers in plastics, fibers, coatings, elastomers, and adhesives.

  5. Introduce students to the literature of polymer chemistry.

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