Course Listings

Advanced Structure, Bonding, & Spectroscopy of Inorganic Compounds This senior capstone course will challenge students with an application of fundamental group theory principles to structure, bonding, and vibrational spectroscopy. Group theory provides a powerful analytical tool for determining how molecular symmetry dictates infrared/Raman spectra and molecular orbital descriptions of chemical bonding. Although the primary focus will include inorganic substances, this course will build upon concepts established in previous coursework from across many subdisciplines of chemistry. In-depth exploration will connect overarching themes in the major and provide a powerful launching point for written comprehensive exam preparation. Critical engagement with the primary literature, small-group problem solving, and diverse modes of oral and written presentation will be emphasized. This one-half credit course is required of all chemistry majors and meets twice each week for the first half of the semester.

The course focuses on mathematical approaches to analyzing bonds and to loan repayment. We will start by looking at the growth of money due to interest, then move on to the present value of an annuity, bond pricing for option-free bonds, yield measures, spot rates, forward rates, return analysis, and the important concept of duration as a measure of price volatility. We will finish with mathematical approaches to loan repayment, with a special focus on a sinking funds approach. This course does not count toward the mathematics major or minor. Credit cannot be given for both for this course and MAT 106 Financial Mathematics or MAT 252 Mathematical Interest Theory.

The course gives a matrix-based treatment of multivariate statistics. Topics will include a brief review of linear algebra (idempotent matrices, orthogonal matrices, spectral decomposition theorem for symmetric matrices), principal components, multivariate distributions, the multivariate normal distribution, the Wishart distribution, multivariate regression, Hotelling's T2, and factor analysis. Credit cannot be given for both for this course and MAT 355 Regression Models. This course may be substituted for MAT 355 Regression Models as a required elective in the Financial Mathematics track of the Mathematics major.

1st half semester. For the 2nd half semester course at 9:45 TuTh, see REL-196-01/ASI-196-01/HUM-196-01. Are religion and science in conflict with each other? In agreement? How or why, one way or the other? These are our questions. We'll do two main things in this course. First, we'll take a careful look at the different "ways of knowing" that are characteristic of science and religion, respectively. Second, we'll look at several models for thinking critically and responsibly about how they are related. Readings will include selections from Bertolt Brecht, Alan Lightman, Jacob Bronowski, Adam Frank, and others, as well as some classic texts in the history of science.