Course Information

Course Objectives: (Please note: these seminars are not the same)

• To accustom the student to the regular perusal of the literature
• To develop the student’s ability to assemble and critically appraise the recent literature
• To develop an understanding (for both the student and the audience) of a research topic of current interest
• To develop the student’s ability to present a seminar
• To accustom the student to public speaking
• To give practice in dealing with verbal questioning

• Course Information
• Speaker Schedule
• Previous Topics
• Lipson-Baines (Course) Award
• Course Topic Form
• Online Seminar Rubric

• See Class Schedule on the Website

Objectives:

This is a milestone added to the transcript for each year of the degree. A grade will still be recorded in Pathfinder when yearly reports are submitted.

Policy guideline and implementation

This milestone is not counted as a requirement for the degree.

Course Objectives:

The intention of the course is to encourage students to expose themselves to experiences that will enhance their professionalism, communication and teaching skill set. Such expertise is critical for successful degree progression and then beyond your time at Western, especially in the workforce.

Course Coordinator:  Associate Chair, Graduate Education or their Designate

Course Guide: Associate Chair, Graduate Education or their Designate

This course is a guided, self-directed  experiential course; the Course Guide will offer advice and ensure a distribution of experiences that fulfill the course requirements.  Thus, it is important to notify the Course Coordinator of your enrolment in the course before accumulating more than one-half the units necessary for completion. Only experiences gained while a registered graduate student are eligible.

EPIC will be recorded as milestones that will remain as "not completed" on the transcript until completed.  

• This is a half course offered in the Fall term.
• This course covers the basic theory and application of electrochemical science.  It is targeted toward students who want to better understand electrochemical processes or to add electrochemical methods to their repertoire of research approaches, including both those who have not yet had much formal electrochemical training and those with more experience.  The course starts at a basic level to ensure that each student starts on a solid footing and to dispel common misconceptions.  It then progresses to cover the core of electrochemical theory that forms the basis for the techniques that are detailed later in the course.  Practical examples, diagrams and images illustrate and reinforce the subject matter. This course provides foundational information for work in corrosion science, batteries, fuel cells, electrosynthesis, electroanalysis, and other fields.

• This .25 course is offered in the first half of the Fall term.

• This .25 course is offered in the first half of the Fall term.

• This .25 course is offered in the first half of the Fall term.

• This .25 course is offered in the second half of the Fall term.
• Effective written communication will be required throughout your career to ensure the impact of your work. This communication will occur in the form of technical reports and manuscripts, patents, grant and scholarship proposals, conference abstracts, and other professional correspondence. This course is designed to enhance your ability to effectively communicate in these different contexts by introducing you to effective written communication skills and to feedback strategies that will enable you to also help improve the work of your coworkers. Assignments will make use of your past or present research data and peer-to-peer feedback to translate the course material into practical use.

• This .25 course is offered in the second half of the Fall term.

• This .25 course is offered in the second half of the Fall term.
• This course will explore medicinal chemistry concepts primarily through case studies of specific classes of therapeutic and diagnostic agents. It will begin with an overview of medicinal chemistry concepts, including a discussion of the methods of drug discovery, the classes of drug molecules (small molecules, peptides, antibodies), methods of optimization and preclinical evaluation. Those with limited background knowledge in medicinal chemistry concepts and terminology will be expected to cover introductory material outside of course lecture time. Case studies of drug discovery will be presented, including the discovery of targeted oncology drugs and the development of imaging agents. There will be a focus on modern medicinal chemistry concepts, such as fragment based design and allosteric modulation. An independent study will be a course requirement with both written and presentation components.

• This .25 course is offered in the second half of the Fall term.

• This .50 course is offered in the winter term.
• An overview of the physical principles underlying the structure, function, and
  dynamics of biological systems, with focus on proteins and biomembranes. Topics to
  be covered include: Selected applications of thermodynamics and statistical
  mechanics; inter- and intramolecular (noncovalent) interactions; protein folding;
  spectroscopic properties of biopolymers.

• This .25 course is offered in the first half of the winter term.
• This quarter course focuses on the phenomenon of luminescence when a
  material is exposed under an external excitation. It covers several core topics on
  the optical properties of materials, with a particular emphasis on solids
  (including colloidal solutions). Fundamental knowledge of light interaction with
  materials will be introduced. We will discuss how the electronic structure of a
  material influences its associated luminescence, and the topic further expands
  to the state-of-art strategies in design and synthesis of materials with novel
  luminescence properties. Practical experimental techniques on optical
  spectroscopy measurements, such as UV-visible absorption spectroscopy,
  fluorescence spectroscopy, quantum yield, and life-time measurements will also
  be introduced.

• This .25 course is offered in the first half of the winter term.

• This .25 course is offered in the first half of the winter term.
• This 0.25 course will build on the topics covered in Chem 9653 or related
  undergraduate polymer chemistry courses including a detailed look at block copolymer
  synthesis, characterization, and self-assembly and other special topics. Through the
  discussion of recent examples from the literature, the ability of these synthetic
  techniques to provide tailor-made functional materials for various applications will be
  explored. Students are recommended to have taken Chem 9653 or an equivalent
  undergraduate polymer chemistry course before enrolling. If there is uncertainty
  surrounding previous courses, please discuss them with Dr. Gilroy.

• This .25 course is offered in the first half of the winter term.

• This .25 course is offered in the second half of the winter term.

• This .25 course is offered in the second half of the winter term.