Graduate Courses

An introduction to safety procedures and the safe handling of chemical compounds and equipment in the laboratory. This non-credit course is required for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering students. All other members of the Chemistry department are welcome to attend. Students must attend all lectures and exam.

Exam: TBD

Coordinator

Paul Duchesne

Based on the regular departmental seminar program offered during the fall, winter and summer, this non-credit course is to be taken every year by all graduate students. As part of this course M.Sc. and Ph.D. students must attend a minimum number of departmental seminars. In addition, Ph.D. students will present one seminar on their research prior to their thesis submission.

Seminar Schedule

To achieve a PASS in the Seminar Series, students must maintain an attendance record of 75% at regular departmental seminars, including named and distinguished lecture series. Seminar attendance is monitored using sign-in attendance sheets. Students with legitimate excuses and/or teaching conflicts will not be penalized for missing seminars. Furthermore, students will be credited for seminars attended in other departments which may be relevant to their research (typically in physics, biochemistry, environmental science, etc.) To obtain a seminar credit, a student must provide a note signed by the seminar coordinator of the other department. Students who do not attend the required 75% of the departmental seminars will obtain an "incomplete". In the subsequent terms, the students who have attended less than 75% of the seminars will have to attend more seminars in the following terms so that a minimum attendance is accomplished for any past terms where an incomplete grade was assigned in addition to 75% attendance for the current term.

Coordinator

Amanda Bongers

Principles of scientific verbal and written communication in Chemistry. Topics include computer literature searching, scientific writing techniques (for research reports, journal manuscripts, and theses), oral and poster conference presentations, and communication skills as teaching assistantships. Assignments will include completion of online course modules on scientific communication from MyGradSkills.ca.

Lectures: Fridays 3:00 - 4:30 PM in CHE 117

Note: This is a twelve-week module that is scheduled from September to December (2 module credit)

Instructor

Hugh Horton and Philippe di Stefano

Kinetics and mechanisms of reactions of transition metals in biological systems, including metalloproteins and metalloenzymes. Roles of metals in hydrolytic and redox enzymes, oxygen transport, development of model systems.

Instructor

Anne Petitjean
 

A survey of materials characterisation methods with an emphasis on practical applications in materials and polymer chemistry. Techniques will include electron microscopy, scanning probe methods, photoelectron & Auger spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry and powder X-ray diffraction methods.

Instructor

Kevin McEleney

A review of business skills critical for success of the technical professional in the chemical industry. Topics may include an introduction to financial accounting, organizational design, managing systems, marketing and business strategy, and planning for innovation.

Times: October 8th, 9th, 22nd, 23rd (7-10pm); December 7th (9-11:30am)

Enrolment Deadline: September 18th

Instructor

Will Rogers

Coordinator

Avena Ross

The Science Leadership and Management course will be delivered over twelve 3-hour sessions to Chemistry and Physics students in either of the first two years of their PhD studies (or other graduate students with permission from the course coordinator and supervisor). The first and last four-week sessions will focus on the develop and application of leadership skills, and the second four-week session will focus on the development of management skills, that are useful in scientific positions in industry and academia.

Note: This is a twelve-week Pass/Fail module that is scheduled from September to December.

Enrolment Deadline: September 18th (unless has permission from instructor)

Instructor

Hugh Horton

This is an external online course offered by Laval that runs the whole semester (Sept – Dec).

This multidisciplinary course main objective is to learn about the social and scientific concepts behind CO2 utilization. The participants will learn the basic chemistry of CO2 and the current ways to sequester and use CO2 at the laboratory and industrial scales. They will also learn about the impact of CO2 on society and climate change, the economic advantages of CO2 utilization and the legal and political aspects related to this modem challenge.  This online course will consist of 13 lectures of 2-3 hours given by specialists in the field of CO2 utilization. They are members and collaborators of the CREATE center on CO2 utilization and are professors in chemistry, chemical engineering, geological engineering, economy and law. (3.0 credit units).

An introduction to modern mass spectrometry. Instruments and the various methods of forming or introducing ions into the gas phase will be discussed and mass spectra will be interpreted. Offered jointly with CHEM 411.

Instructor

Richard Oleschuk

A review of the basic reactions involving transition metal catalysts in transformations of organic compounds. Fundamental reactions such as oxidative addition, reductive elimination, migratory insertions and transmetallations will be covered. Different types of ligands and their bonding properties will also be covered. Reactions of importance to organic chemistry including hydrogenations, oxidations,cross coupling reactions, metathesis and other pertinent reactions will be covered. Offered jointly with CHEM 414.

** Student allowed to take only two of these 800 level courses throughout their graduate program. These modules will be offered concurrent with fourth year courses.

Instructor

P. Andrew Evans

Enzyme mechanisms and inhibition, catalytic antibodies, stereochemical and other biological probes. Phosphoryl group transfer reactions.

Instructor

Graeme Howe

This course will cover subject areas of magnetic resonance spectroscopy including nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Instructor

Gang Wu

An introductory course on identification of organic and organometallic compounds using multinuclear NMR techniques. The focus will be on practical applications for those working in synthetic chemistry. 

Instructor

TBA

This course is an introduction into the use of chromatographic and electrophoretic separation methods for chemical analysis. The goal of this course is to familiarize students with chromatographic and electrophoretic theory and develop a practical understanding of various chemical separation methods. Topics to be covered in detail are gas chromatography, liquid chromatography (reverse phase, hydrophilic interaction, normal phase and ion exchange), capillary electrophoresis (capillary zone electrophoresis, electrochromatography and micellar electrokinetic chromatography) as well as others.

Instructor

Stephen Brown

Topics include numerical integration, numerical treatment of differential equations, interpolation, Fourier transforms, regression. Concepts in Fortran programming are also introduced.

Instructor

Tucker Carrington

This course has been cancelled.

This module focuses after a brief review of ionisation techniques and current mass spectrometric equipment on novel hybrid-tandem-MS instruments and current applications of mass spectrometry in different areas of the life sciences. Topics include, but are not limited to, atomic composition determination, identification methods for proteins and determination of post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation or glycosylation now widely used in the evolving field of proteomics, studies of non-covalent biomolecule interactions and new high-throughput screening techniques as employed in drug or catalyst development.

Instructor

TBA

A discussion of some modern methods used in organic synthesis with an emphasis on stereoselective reactions; illustrations of the value and scope of the methods and applications in the synthesis of complex molecules.

Instructor

Amanda Bongers

Advanced methods for the identification of organic and organometallic compounds using multinuclear NMR techniques. The focus will be on practical applications for those working in synthetic chemistry.

Prerequisite: CHEM805

Instructor

TBA

Dilute polymer solutions and phase separation behaviour. Polymer characterization including vapour pressure lowering, ebulliometry, osmometry, viscometry, gel permeation chromatography, light scattering and ultracentrifuge methods.

Instructor

Simon Hesp

Specific properties of polymers (glass transition, crystallinity, poly-dispersity, etc.) and their dependence on macromolecular structure and isomerism.

Instructor

Guojun Liu

Topics to be covered in this course include (a) luminescent/ electroluminescent compounds, (b) fullerene chemistry and (c) magnetic and electronic materials.  Offered jointly with CHEM 423.

** Student allowed to take only two of these 800 level courses throughout their graduate program. These modules will be offered concurrent with fourth year courses.

Instructor

Lucia Lee

A discussion of syntheses of complex organic molecules selected from pharmaceutical, natural product, and materials science areas using retrosynthetic analysis concepts. Illustrated syntheses will incorporate fundamentally important and currently significant synthetic methodologies as practiced in small scale academic and process scale industrial laboratories. 

Prerequisite: CHEM 880

** Student allowed to take only two of these 800 level courses throughout their graduate program. These modules will be offered concurrent with fourth year courses.

Instructor

Amanda Bongers

This course introduces the current topics in luminescent materials chemistry including photophysical and photochemical properties of transition metal and main group compounds, and characterization methods.The design and synthetic aspects of luminescent materials and their applications in sensing and optoelectronic devices, and photocatalysis will also be discussed.

Instructor

Kevin Stamplecoskie