Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• CAS CH 642: Organic Reaction Mechanisms
  Graduate Prerequisites: (CASCH212 & CASCH301) or equivalent, or consent of instructor. - Fundamentals of organic reaction mechanisms related to acid/base catalysis, reactions of the carbonyl group, cycloadditions, nucleophilic displacement reactions, and redox chemistry.
• CAS CH 643: Synthetic Methods of Organic Chemistry
  Graduate Prerequisites: (GRSCH642) - Organic synthesis strategies for total synthesis of complex natural products. Various approaches for organic molecules whose synthesis constitutes major contributions to organic chemistry.
• CAS CH 645: Transition Metal Chemistry
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior standing and CAS CH 203/204 (or CH 203/214 or CH 211/212) and C H 232; recommended corequisite: CH 301. - 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.
  
• CAS CH 646: Organic Spectroscopy and Structure Determination
  Graduate Prerequisites: (CASCH212 & CASCH351) or equivalent, or consent of instructor. - Spectroscopic methods in organic structure determination, including mass spectrometry with main emphasis on nuclear magnetic resonance.
• CAS CH 647: The Chemistry of Biotechnology
  Graduate Prerequisites: CAS CH 212 or CAS CH 214, CAS CH 301, CAS CH 422. - This course focuses on the application of chemical principles in different biotechnologies. With the importance of the biotechnology sector nationally and in Boston, this interdisciplinary course explores how the chemical sciences contribute to this growing area.
• CAS CH 648: Contemporary Drug Discovery
  Graduate Prerequisites: CAS CH 203/204, CH 203/214, or CH 211/212; or equivalent, or consent o f the instructor. - This course is aimed at graduate and advanced undergraduate students who have an interest in drug discovery research. It covers the key theory and practice associated with the discovery and development of drugs and tool compounds. In focusing on the biochemical and pharmacological aspects of drug discovery, it complements GRS CH644 Medicinal Chemistry. Three hours lecture.
• CAS CH 651: Molecular Quantum Mechanics I: Fundamentals
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASCH351 & CASCH352) or equivalent. - Postulates and general formalism with emphasis on chemical applications; application to particle in a box, harmonic oscillator, hydrogen atom; tunneling; angular momentum theory, spin, spin-orbit coupling; ladder operators; time- independent perturbation theory, computational methods including tight-binding model and Huckel theory.
• CAS CH 652: Molecular Quantum Mechanics II: Dynamics and Spectroscopy
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (GRSCH651) or equivalent. - Graduate Corequisites: (GRSCH654) - Time-dependent perturbation theory; potential surface; Born-Oppenheimer approximation/breakdown; radiation-matter interaction; line shapes; quantum density operator; quantum master equations; spin-boson model. Applications to absorption, Raman and CD spectroscopies; nonlinear and time domain spectroscopies including SHG, pump-probe, CARS, and photon echoes. Computational methods.
• CAS CH 653: Molecular Quantum Mechanics III: Electronic Structure
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (GRSCH652) or equivalent. - Introduction to electronic structure theory and modern quantum chemistry software. Focus on theoretical foundations, capabilities, and limitations of wave-function- based and density functional theory methods. Relevant software tutorials and computational homework assignments. Skills to design and independently perform quantum chemical simulations.
• CAS CH 654: Methods of Chemical Physics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. - Graduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. - Fundamentals and applications of theoretical methods in chemical physics. Vector calculus. Multipole expansion and normal modes. Fourier series and Fourier transforms. Laplace transforms. Functions of a complex variable. Green's function methods. Theory of linear vector spaces. Advanced matrix algebra. Eigenvalue problems.
• CAS CH 655: Statistical Mechanics I
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (GRSCH651) or equivalent or consent of instructor. - Basic concepts in statistics, thermodynamics, and quantum mechanics. Ensembles. Fermi-Dirac, Bose-Einstein, and Gibbs-Boltzmann statistics. Ideal gas, atomic crystals, Ising model, Langmuir isotherm, lattice statistics. Polyatomic molecules, polymers, and biomolecules. Polymer and polyelectrolyte solutions.
• CAS CH 656: Statistical Mechanics II
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (GRSCH655) or equivalent or consent of instructor. - Topics in equilibrium and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics with chemical applications. Theories of gases and liquids, ionic solutions and interfaces, time correlation functions, linear response theory, Brownian motion, generalized Langevin equation, projection operator, rate theories, discrete kinetics, fluctuation theorem, phase transition.
• CAS CH 677: An Introduction to Evidence-Based Undergraduate STEM Teaching
  Online course with in-person faculty-led sessions. Participants learn about effective teaching strategies and the research that supports them, and apply approaches to lesson design and assignments for future teaching opportunities.
• CAS CH 721: Special Topics in Biochemistry
  Graduate Prerequisites: (GRSCH621) or equivalent or consent of instructor. - Detailed analysis of special topics of research in biochemistry. Topics are determined by the instructor depending on interest and expertise.
• CAS CH 724: Special Topics in Biochemistry
  Graduate Prerequisites: (GRSCH621) or consent of instructor. - Detailed analysis of special topics of research in biochemistry. Topics are determined by the instructor depending on interest and expertise. Subjects covered include protein analysis, mechanistic enzymology, nucleic acid research, protein/nucleic acid interactions, and spectroscopic methods. Topic for Fall 2020: Macromolecular Structure Determination.
• CAS CH 729: Special Topics in Chemical Biology
  Graduate Prerequisites: CH 623 or equivalent; or consent of instructor - Selected topics of research in chemical biology. Topics are determined by the instructor depending on interest and expertise.
• CAS CH 731: Special Topics in Inorganic Chemistry
  Graduate Prerequisites: (GRSCH631) or equivalent or consent of instructor. - Selected topics of current research interest in inorganic and bioinorganic chemistry.
• CAS CH 744: Current Topics in Organic Chemistry
  Graduate Prerequisites: (CASCH421 OR GRSCH721) or equivalent and at least two semesters of und ergraduate organic chemistry or consent of instructor. - Current topics in advanced organic chemistry. The course content varies with instructor.
• CAS CH 751: Advanced Topics in Physical Chemistry
  Graduate Prerequisites: (GRSCH652) or equivalent or consent of instructor. - Current topics of research in physical chemistry. The course content varies with instructor.
• CAS CH 752: Advanced Topics in Chemical Physics
  Graduate Prerequisites: (GRSCH651) or equivalent or consent of instructor. - Current topics of research in chemical physics. Course content varies with the instructor.