Teaching

The courses I teach at UNC Charlotte span all levels from undergraduate to graduate offerings.  Overall, my teaching goal is to increase scientific literacy.  Too often, misconceptions or lack of awareness lead to inaccurate or inappropriate personal and societal decision making.  We don’t need more scientists as much as we need more understanding of science and how we create new knowledge and how we assess current and past models and ideas.  These are not easy skills and they are not learned in isolation.  Data is not information and information is not knowledge.  Yet we start with an observation and we move toward understanding.  Learning these skills starts in lecture and laboratory courses and is accomplished through a productive research experience.

ORI101 “Summer Intensive Chemistry Orientation” (SICO)
The course is designed for UNC Charlotte freshmen admittees planning to go into Engineering, Science, or Health Fields who can benefit from a preview of CHEM 1251 (Principles of Chemistry I). This orientation course is only available to incoming admitted UNC Charlotte freshmen.  Students learn a lot of chemistry but they also make new friends and have fun.  A great way to get oriented to the college experience!

CHEM 1251. Principles of Chemistry I. (3)
A principles-oriented course for science majors. Fundamental postulates and laws of chemistry; the relationship of atomic structure to physical and chemical properties of the elements. Three lecture hours and one Problem Session hour per week. (Students may attempt CHEM 1251 a total of three times. Withdrawing from the course after the Add/Drop deadline constitutes an attempt as does receiving any letter grade.  Credit will be given for only one course: 1111, 1203, or 1251.) (Fall, Spring, Summer) (Evenings)

CHEM 1252. Principles of Chemistry II. (3)
Prerequisite: CHEM 1251 with a grade of C or better. Continuation of CHEM 1251. Three lecture hours and one Problem Session hour per week. (Students may attempt CHEM 1252 a total of three times. Withdrawing from the course after the Add/Drop deadline constitutes an attempt as does receiving any letter grade.  Credit will be given for only one course: 1112, 1204, or 1252.) (Fall, Spring, Summer) (Evenings)

CHEM 3142.  Physical Chemistry. (3)
Prerequisites:  CHEM 1252, 1252L and 3141, each with a grade of C or better; MATH 1241 and 1242; PHYS 2102 and 2102L; or permission of the instructor.  Prerequisite or corequisite:  At least one of the following:  MATH 2241, 2242, 2164, 2171, STAT 3128, or a department-approved mathematics course.  Kinetic theory of gases, statistical and classical thermodynamics, kinetics.  (Spring)

Graduate Classes in Chemistry Master’s of Science degree and Nanoscale Science Ph.D. degree

 CHEM 6082. Surfaces and Interfaces of Materials Chemistry. (3)
Prerequisites: Any three semesters of undergraduate calculus based mathematics (i.e., MATH 1241, 1242, and 2241) and an upper level undergraduate course in thermodynamics (i.e., CHEM 3142, PHYS 3151 OR MEGR 3112) or permission of the instructor. Theoretical basis, conceptual understanding and experimental investigations of the properties of surfaces and interfaces of various classes of materials will be presented. The content of this course will build from a rigorous derivation of the physical chemistry of surfaces and interfaces to a discussion of topical materials classes and specific materials properties. Three lecture hours each week. (Alternate years)

NANO 8102. Nanoscale Phenomena. (3)
Topics include, but are not limited to, scaling phenomena; nano-optics (near-field optics, limits of lithography masks, nano-dots and nanoscale optical interactions); nanoscale mechanics; nanotribology; biological and biologically-inspired machines.

NANO 8202. Interdisciplinary Team Project. (2)
Corequisite: NANO 8682. An encapsulated, semester-long research experience designed to introduce students to laboratory work in nanoscale science. Students work, in interdisciplinary teams of 2-4 students, on a short research project and present their results during a meeting of the Nanoscale Science Colloquium.

NANO 8203. Collaborative Research Proposal. (3)
Effective strategies for designing and writing research proposals are presented by program faculty members, and staff from proposal development offices on campus. Students work in teams of 2-3 to prepare an original, interdisciplinary research proposal on a topic in nanoscale science. The proposal conforms to regulations of a selected funding agency and must address a topic that is supported by that agency. Each team consults regularly with a panel of 2-3 faculty members who collectively approve the proposal topic, provide feedback during the development of the proposal, and ultimately evaluate the proposal. The course is designed to increase the ability of students to relate research ideas to fundamental concepts in science and engineering, to help students learn to develop effective methods of presenting ideas and defending them, to help students develop self confidence in their abilities to present and defend ideas, and to improve oral and written communication skills.