The Department of Chemistry is purchasing computer equipment to upgrade the control interface of two computer-controlled instruments: a FT-IR and a mid-field FT-NMR. These two instruments find heavy use in our project-oriented laboratories at the sophomore, junior, and senior levels. Throughout the program students undertake extended multistage laboratory projects requiring them to display a growing independence. In the sophomore year, which is the primary beneficiary of the project, the students select a multistage synthesis from the original current research literature to investigate. Examples of recent projects are synthesis of a pheromone of the western pine beetle, and of a model compound for the antioxidant alpha-tocopherol. Both the number and sophistication of IR and NMR spectra are increasing with the new interfaces; sophomores are able to run their own 2 - D NMR spectra by the end of the year, and students in the upper-level laboratories use the full capabilities of both instruments in characterizing compounds prepared in their projects.
