I know that several chemists I know tend to complain about having to learn atomic quantum mechanics in physical chem Mm. In our class it was *not* popular. Partly because roughly half the people had come to the chemistry course from the Chemical and Biological Sciences first year course (the other half had come from the Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Sciences first year course, now split up into the three disciplines. And yet out of the two courses, comprising of between 200 and 300 first years, only 38 wanted to do chemistry - and this is at a major university). I got through it in the end by just learning the bits I didn't understand. We also had to learn some more quantum mech. in fourth year for the chemistry of lasers course. But at least I finally learned the difference between fluorescence and phosphorescence. :-P
And I do know that biochemistry and organic chemistry are different, but I see the research applications of physical chemistry leaning more toward solid state physics, and the research applications of organic chemistry leaning more toward biotechnology these days. The Atmospheric Chemistry elective involved some phys. chem. (Steady State, Ideal Gas Law, etc), the Analytical Chemistry modules involved some electrochem., and we had Physical Chemistry core modules every year. Surprisingly, the Materials Science course didn't involve a whole lot of phys. chem., but there was some there.
Also, organic chemistry (and retrosynthetic analysis) is absolutely vital for R&D of new pharmaceutical compounds. Most of the organic chemistry fourth year projects had to do with pharmaceutical compounds, but there were a couple that had to do with biotech IIRC.
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Date: 2005-11-02 05:33 pm (UTC)Mm. In our class it was *not* popular. Partly because roughly half the people had come to the chemistry course from the Chemical and Biological Sciences first year course (the other half had come from the Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Sciences first year course, now split up into the three disciplines. And yet out of the two courses, comprising of between 200 and 300 first years, only 38 wanted to do chemistry - and this is at a major university). I got through it in the end by just learning the bits I didn't understand. We also had to learn some more quantum mech. in fourth year for the chemistry of lasers course. But at least I finally learned the difference between fluorescence and phosphorescence. :-P
And I do know that biochemistry and organic chemistry are different, but I see the research applications of physical chemistry leaning more toward solid state physics, and the research applications of organic chemistry leaning more toward biotechnology these days.
The Atmospheric Chemistry elective involved some phys. chem. (Steady State, Ideal Gas Law, etc), the Analytical Chemistry modules involved some electrochem., and we had Physical Chemistry core modules every year. Surprisingly, the Materials Science course didn't involve a whole lot of phys. chem., but there was some there.
Also, organic chemistry (and retrosynthetic analysis) is absolutely vital for R&D of new pharmaceutical compounds. Most of the organic chemistry fourth year projects had to do with pharmaceutical compounds, but there were a couple that had to do with biotech IIRC.