Chem 120: General Chemistry I is a classic first semester of college chemistry intended for science majors who need a solid foundation of chemistry for their future work. Prof. Talaga will be lecturing on atomic structure, periodic trends, the quantum mechanical model of the atom, Lewis structures, chemical bonding, molecular orbitals, and molecular structure predictions.

Chem 540: Chemical Thermodynamics is intended for graduate students. Senior undergraduates who have completed two semesters of physical chemistry may enroll with permission of the instructor. The course examines how a probability-based approach to the two laws of thermodynamics allows us to investigate the molecular basis of chemical properties like solubility, vapor pressure, surface tension, miscibility, equilibrium, phase separation, elasticity, ligand binding curves, cooperativity, polymer properties, protein folding, and more. Often in the laboratory we cannot conveniently measure the property we want to know; thermodynamics can allow us to convert the results of a convenient measurement to the inconvenient property we desire. Students in the course will learn to use the software package Mathematica to derive and implement the formulas needed to make such conversions. Using those formulas in Mathematica, students will manipulate and fit experimental data to illustrate and practice Thermodynamic analyses.