Chemistry and Biochemistry

Chemistry 510
Advanced Physical Chemistry

Last update for Spring 2021

Instructor:

• Andrew Cooksy
  CSL-310, 594-5571
  email: acooksy@sdsu.edu
  Office Hours: Wed 10:30am-11:30am; by Zoom.
  Example sessions: Mon 5-6pm, by Zoom.

CHEM 510 Syllabus Information

CHEM 510 covers the same material as the CHEM 410A undergraduate course, and is offered primarily for graduate students who choose to have some additional preparation in physical chemistry before pursuing advanced graduate courses, and to Open University students or non-majors interested in physical chemistry credit. CHEM 510 may not be taken for credit if a student has taken CHEM 410A. This course is not normally open to undergraduate chemistry and biochemistry majors, because the CHEM 410A lab is prerequisite to CHEM 457 and CHEM 417.

With two exceptions, CHEM 510 adheres to the CHEM 410A course syllabus. The two exceptions, where CHEM 510 differs from CHEM 410A, are:

• There is no lab component to CHEM 510, which is why CHEM 510 is a 3-unit course and 410A is a 4-unit course.
• To make CHEM 510 more appropriate for graduate study, students in 510 are required to present to the 510 class (and perhaps others) an oral analysis (see below) of a current research paper, relevant both to the student's area of research interest and to the 410A course material (e.g., spectroscopy, fundamental quantum mechanics, molecular symmetry, classical bond analysis, computational chemistry).

Paper presentation:

The paper must be approved in advance by the instructor; the students should search the literature for a recent paper, but the instructor will try to find suitable papers if requested. Papers should be selected no later than the 8th week of class (March 16 2020). Presentations will be given outside regular class time, at a time and date agreed to by the 510 instructor and students, no later than the week of final exams. Each presentation should be 15 to 20 minutes long, with additional time for questions. Presentations may use the board, and/or presentation software such as Prezi or PowerPoint. They will be graded based on the student's knowledge of the work, critical assessment, and clarity of presentation. These presentations may be added to the Department's Journal Club seminar listing, when the Journal Club is active (so some of our other graduate students may wish to attend).

As well as giving their own presentation, every student will be expected to provide written comments on each of the other presentations. These will be combined with the instructor's comments and provided to the speaker when final grades are assigned.

Grading:

CHEM 410A lecture assignments (drills, homework, and exams) will be graded on the same scale as given in the 410A syllabus. The total 410A score will then be scaled by 80%. The paper presentation and participation in the seminar will count for the remaining 20% of the final grade in CHEM 510.