Volume 16, No.7, December 1982 CALTECH NEWS pounds, became optional and were Three Caltech offered in the winter and spring. graduate programs But under this plan, there was an overlap in material that diluted the rank number one program's efficiency, blending per­ in nationwide survey sons in the same classrooms whose backgrounds varied widely. Some Caltech ranked number one - students took 3B and 3C before either alone or with other institutions proceeding on to 46A and 46B, - in a recent report that judged the which focused on organic systems, scholastic quality of graduate pro" while other students went directly grams in mathematics and science at into the organic program. the nation's major research Another matter to be addressed universities. stemmed from the fact that, across Caltech led the field in geoscience, the country, the lines between inor­ and shared top rankings with Har­ ganic and organic chemistry had ' vard in physics. The Institute was in become increasingly blurred. Explains a four-way tie for first in chemistry Professor of Chemistry Peter Der­ with Berkeley, Harvard, and MIT. van, "We use common analytical The report was the result of a equipment. We are both molecule two-year, $500,000 study published builders in our efforts to invent new under the sponsorship of four aca­ materials. We use common bonds for demic groups - the American Coun­ The Mead Laboratory is the setting for Chemistry 5, where Carlotta Paulsen uses a rotary probing how chemical bonds are evaporator to remove a solvent from a synthesized product. Paulsen is a junior majoring in made and broken." cil of Learned Societies, the American chemistry. Council on Education, the Social A redesign of the undergraduate Services Research Council, and the laboratory curriculum seemed to be National Research Council. It was in order. This task was undertaken funded by the Mellon-Ford and Sloan Students in the Mead Lab: primarily by member of the profes­ Foundations, the National Institutes sional staff Jane S. Raymond, direc­ of Health, the National Science "Like kids in a toy shop" tor of undergraduate laboratories, Foundation, and the National Acad­ and Professor of Chemistry John E. emy of Sciences. By Winifred Veronda Bercaw. The redesign was completed The evaluations were based on a in 1978. survey of 1, ISS mathematics and Chemistry 3A has convened for its The lab - dedicated just last In revising the curriculum Ray­ science professors, or about 8 percent first fall session in the new Mead spring - has its origin in the Febru­ mond and Bercaw (along with Der­ of all U.S. professors in those fields. Laboratory, and first-term freshmen ary 9, 1971, earthquake. Gates Labo­ van and Senior Research Associate The professors rated 228 institutions are recrystallizing thei~ unknown ratory - for many years the site of William P. Schaefer) set three goals: on "scholarly quality." Ratings were acids. freshman undergraduate chemistry • Emphasize modern instrumental based on scores from 0 to 5 . ''I'm having a great time!" says instruction - was so badly damaged methods of analysis, separation, and The first report covers chemistry, freshman Harold Felton, who plans in the quake that it could no longer characterization; physics, mathematics, geoscience, to major in chemical engineering. be used. When space was solicited on • Integrate experiments tradi­ computer sciences, and statistics. ''I'm like a kid in a toy shop." an emergency basis, Chemistry 3 was tionally presented separately in Reports in the corning months will "This is the best lab I've ever been housed in ten different locations; organic and inorganic laboratories; rate universities on programs in in," says freshman Torn Tucker. "It other undergraduate chemistry labs and humanities, engineering, biological has everything you could possibly were also spread around campus. • Prepare students to begin work sciences, and social and behavioral need." About a year after the quake, in a research laboratory after a two­ sciences. And indeed, the laboratory is the work was begun on a new under­ year program. best that any undergraduate is likely graduate chemistry lab adjacent to Explains Bercaw, "We want stu­ to find, because the Clifford S. and Noyes Laboratory, and instruction dents who finish this program to be Ruth A. Mead Memorial Undergrad­ started there in the 1973 fall quarter. able to go right into a chemistry uate Chemistry Laboratory has been Meanwhile, the undergraduate research lab and do meaningful termed the most sophisticated in the chemistry curriculum was beginning work. Their background is almost country in terms of structure, instru­ a transformation. equal to that of first-year graduate mentation, and curriculum. The requirement for three terms of students." The program means that freshman chemistry lab - in effect some students may begin independ­ for many years - was reduced to ent research in their junior year. one term (Chemistry 3A) and all Please turn the page. freshmen were required to take it during the fall quarter. Chemistry 3B and 3C emphasizing inorganic com- Continued from page 1 search groups. Purchased through The new curriculum generated gifts from four corporations and a some controversy within the divi­ foundation (Varian Associates, IBM, sion. "Let's get them right into the Hewlett-Packard, Beckman Instru­ research labs," said some members, ments, and the Camille and Henry "and let them learn by doing. This is Dreyfus Foundation), the equipment what Caltech is all about." includes three nuclear magnetic "But," says Bercaw, "that ap­ resonance spectrometers (two of proach requires that students be them new Varian 90 MHZ instru­ taught research techniques on a ments), two new Beckman infrared one-to-one basis. The big advantage spectrophotometers, two new of the new curriculum is that, when Hewlett-Packard gas chromato­ students do go into the research labs, graphs, and a new IBM liquid they already have a grasp on basic chromatograph. research techniques." . Raymond and Bercaw have won­ In the new curriculum, Chemistry dered whether entering Cal tech 3A stands alone while the other freshmen will appreciate the facility courses fit together in a sequence: and how special it is, or whether they Chemistry 4A features practical may simply presume it is typical of spectroscopy; 4B, chromatography, college chemistry laboratories. But involving modern methods for sepa­ upperclassmen who can compare old rating compounds. Courses SA and B and new are outspoken in their get into sophisticated synthesizing enthusiasm for the new building. techniques. "They all say they'd like to come In the latter two courses, students back and take the courses over," says learn modern methods for making a Bercaw. And the program's mentors compound, and how to use a glove note that an increasing number of box and vacuum line as they work students in other options are taking with compounds that react with air. chemistry lab courses as options since They also are given exposure to the the Mead Lab became a reality. 111 Chemistry 3A, freshman Jeanine Gainey uses an analytic balance for accurate dete"mil1atiol1 latest methods of synthesizing or­ of the mass of the substance she is al1alyzil1g. Her TA (at right) is Stephan Witt, a graduate Meanwhile, Raymond is busy ganic, organometallic, and inorganic stude"t i" chemistry. developing new techniques and new compounds. experiments for the chemistry stu­ "The students who finish these using the exterior of the existing mentation. One is used, three terms a dents to perform. 'This is one of the courses know research techniques structure and completely reconstruct­ year, for students in Chemistry 3A, challenges in working with Cal tech and methodology," says Bercaw. ing the interior. The division gave the while the other serves students in the undergraduates," she says. "You have "They haven't refined the techniques, plan its solid backing and the build- more advanced courses . to work hard to keep ahead of them. but they're not intimidated by them. ing became a reality, thanks to a gift AlI the work in the labs is done in And you get a lot of feedback: they If they have to put their hands in a from the Mead estates. a hood, or (for some of the experi­ won't hesitate to let you know what glove box, they feel comfortable The result, its designers believe, is ments in Chemistry SA and B) by they think about the program or the about what they're doing. the most sophisticated undergraduate using a glove box or vacuum lines. materiaL" "This is a very ambitious pro­ lab in the United States in terms of Each student is assigned a hood and Some of that feedback comes from gram," he adds. "We expect the structure, instrumentation, and small lab bench; a sink is shared. Jonathan Parker, a senior chemistry students to assimilate a lot of Each hood is equipped with fixed major, enroIled faIl quarter in knowledge in a hurry." and variable voltage electricity, Chemistry S. But a major problem confronted "This is far and away the finest The result is the most water, air, steam, nitrogen, and house the creators of the new curriculum: It vacuum. There is no natural gas in undergraduate lab I've seen," he says. sophisticated undergraduate lab emphasized the use of the most the building. Heating mantles, oil "I can't imagine any other school modern instrumentation, and stu­ in the country in terms of baths, and steam baths substitute for going to the trouble or expense." dents were being taught in a "tem­ structure, instrumentation, and Bunsen burners. Each hood has its And with that the lab's creators are porary" lab with old equipment. curriculum. own filter to protect the central happy to agree. They conceived a building to go with vacuum system, and provision has the curriculum - one that could be been made for installing activated made a reality for $1.2 million by curriculum.