In addition to a complete redesign of the curriculum, this project is adding a capillary gas chromatograph, a UV/VIS spectrophotometer detector, and a planar separations module to the instrumental analysis laboratory facilities. In the new curriculum, students role-play pharmaceutical analytical development. Each lab section consists of up to five groups of four students that develop methods and acquire data sufficient to complete an analytical profile for an assigned, pharmaceutical compound. Each of the seven instrumentation modules provides a key piece of data for the profile. The analytical profiles are examined by pharmaceutical chemists, who will be serving as mentors to our program. Students work individually and collaboratively within groups. This curriculum is dramatically improving the proficiency of bachelor's level chemists, making them much more competitive in the job market. In addition to Instrumental Analytical Methods, the new instrumentation is being used in a total of four upper and lower-level chemistry courses.
