Chemistry

  • GRS CH 621: Biochemistry I
    Introductory biochemistry. Protein structure and folding enzyme mechanisms, kinetics, and allostery; nucleic acid structure; lipids and membrane structure; bioenergetics; vitamins and coenzymes; introduction to intermediary metabolism. Three hours lecture, four hours laboratory, one hour discussion. Same as GRS BI 621. Lecture and laboratory meet with CAS BI/CH 421.
  • GRS CH 622: Biochemistry II
    Polysaccharides, energy storage and recognition; intermediary metabolism; lipid and isoprene metabolism; nitrogen metabolism; nucleotide metabolism; macromolecular biosynthesis with emphasis on specificity and fidelity in the mechanisms of RNA, DNA, and proteins synthesis. Three hours lecture, four hours laboratory, one hour discussion. Same as GRS BI 622. Lecture and laboratory meet with CAS BI/CH 422
  • GRS CH 625: Enzymology: Mechanisms of Enzymatic Reactions
    Covers enzyme structure-function relationships. A tool-box of methods is presented, including kinetics (steady state and pre-steady state methods), isotope effects, stereo-chemical methods, site-directed mutagenesis, methods to replace natural with unnatural amino acids, mechanism based inhibitors.
  • GRS CH 627: RNA Structure and Function
    Chemical and structural biology of natural RNA molecules, including ribosomal RNA, catalytic RNA (ribozymes), siRNA (small interfering RNA), and other small transcribed RNA molecules. Some attention to biological function, but main focus is not RNA cell and molecular biology.
  • GRS CH 632: Advanced Coordination Chemistry II: Inorganic Reaction Mechanisms
    The mechanistic study of ligand substitution and electron transfer processes in coordination compounds are discussed in the context of basic molecular orbital theory. The connections between small molecule inorganic and biological macromolecular metal-catalyzed processes are presented. Three hours lecture.
  • GRS CH 635: Synthetic Methodology in Inorganic Chemistry
    Survey of techniques for the preparation of complexes of the metallic elements in solution (as distinct from solid-state synthesis).
  • GRS CH 641: Physical Organic Chemistry
    Physical fundamentals of organic chemistry. Thermodynamics, kinetics, molecular orbital theory, and theory of concerted reactions. Isotope effects, aromaticity, linear free energy relationships, acidity functions, photo- and free-radical chemistry. Three hours lecture.
  • GRS CH 642: Organic Reaction Mechanisms
    Fundamentals of organic reaction mechanisms. Techniques used to study reaction mechanisms. Reactive intermediates: carbonium ions, radicals, carbenes, and nitrenes. Acid/base catalysis, reactions for the carbonyl group, cycloaddition, nucleophilic displacement reactions, and redox chemistry. Three hours lecture.
  • GRS CH 643: Synthetic Methods of Organic Chemistry
    Organic synthesis strategies for total synthesis. Various approaches for organic molecules whose synthesis constitutes major contributions to organic chemistry. Three hours lecture.
  • GRS CH 644: Medicinal Chemistry
    Intensive overview of recent advances in the medicinal and pharmaceutical sciences. Introduces the concepts of drug design and development, including organic synthesis, combinatorial chemistry, chemical informatics, molecular modeling and drug design, drug metabolism, and specific therapeutic targets.
  • GRS CH 645: Transition Metal Chemistry
    Introduction to the concepts of transition metal-mediated reactions and mechanisms, including electronic structure and properties, reaction mechanisms, kinetics, organometallic compounds, catalytic reactions, and aspects of asymmetric catalysis.
  • GRS CH 651: Molecular Quantum Mechanics I
    Postulates of quantum mechanics with emphasis on chemical applications; application to model systems: particle in a box, harmonic oscillator, rigid rotor, hydrogen atom; tunneling; angular momentum theory, spin; ladder operators, computational methods.
  • GRS CH 652: Molecular Quantum Mechanics II
    The chemical bond; Huckel, molecular orbital, and valence bond theories; ab initio methods, density functional theory; Born-Oppenheimer approximation/breakdown; time-dependent processes; Fermi's golden rule; non-adiabaticity; time-dependent perturbation theory; computational methods.
  • GRS CH 654: Methods of Chemical Physics
    Vector calculus with applications. Fourier series and Fourier integral with applications and function of a complex variable with applications. Also Green's function methods, theory of linear vector spaces, and solutions of eigenfunction problems.
  • GRS CH 655: Statistical Mechanics I
    Introduction to statistical mechanical fundamentals; ensemble theory, Fermi-Dirac, Bose-Einstein, Gibbs-Boltzmann statistics; computational methods, Monte Carlo, Molecular Dynamics, many-body quantum mechanical simulations, normal mode analysis; ergodic hypothesis, modern theories of liquids and biomolecules, thermodynamic perturbation theory, integral equations, Debye-Huckel theory.
  • GRS CH 656: Statistical Mechanics II
    Selected advanced topics may include theories of liquids, free energy perturbation theory, phase transitions, Ising model, Zimm-Bragg model of coil-to-helix transition; irreversible thermodynamics, scattering, linear response theory, time correlation functions, transport, models of diffusion, chemical reaction rate theory, and spectroscopy. Three hours lecture.
  • GRS CH 699: Teaching College Chemistry I
    The goals, contents, and methods of instruction in chemistry. General teaching-learning issues. Required of all teaching fellows.
  • GRS CH 751: Advanced Topics in Physical Chemistry
    Current topics of research in physical chemistry. The course content varies with instructor.
  • GRS CH 801: Graduate Research Methods and Scholarly Writing
    Introduction to scholarly writing, oral presentation, proposal development, data analysis, mentoring relationships, and ethical conduct in research
  • GRS CH 802: Rsch Methods 2

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