A two week summer workshop at Mississippi State University for Chemistry faculty members from undergraduate institutions in Mississippi and the adjoining states of Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, and Louisiana is being conducted. A special effort is being made to attract women and minority participants from within the region. The topic of computer-aided spectroscopy is being treated in three components involving Fourier transform infrared and Fourier transform nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies and computer-aided data acquisition and analysis. Those topics represent more modern methods of chemical analysis which are likely to be less familiar to most undergraduate faculty. The workshop consists of both lecture and laboratory components in which hands-on experience are helping emphasize the advanced concepts developed in the classroom. The primary goals of the workshop are to up-date the training of the undergraduate faculty on modern methods of spectroscopic analysis, encourage the enhancement of the current curricula at the participants' home institutions, and promote continued interaction between workshop staff and participants for future seminars, consulting, or research collaboration. A workshop handbook containing the materials and experiments covered is being developed for each participant. The handbook is being used in conjunction with the workshop, and afterwards the participating faculty are taking it to their home institutions to aid in curriculum development.
