Microscopy For Undergrad Chemists (Chemical & Engineering News)
Microscopy For Undergrad Chemists
New program offers advanced training and first four-year degree in chemical microscopy
Mitch Jacoby
Chemical & Engineering News- October 17, 2011
Chemistry majors rarely get the chance to acquire much microscopy experience during their undergraduate years. But with the launch this fall semester of a new program at a Chicago-area college, not only will chemistry undergraduates have the opportunity to acquire substantial skills in chemistry-based microscopy, they will also have the option of earning a bachelor’s degree in the subject.
North Central College in Naperville, Ill., has begun offering the nation’s first four-year degree in chemical microscopy. The program expands North Central’s chemistry curriculum options by providing an alternative to its conventional American Chemical Society-approved degree program.
Students who elect to major in the new program will spend their first three years at North Central completing the same chemistry curriculum and liberal arts education as “ordinary” chemistry majors. In the fourth year, they will take a series of intensive one-week microscopy courses, including ones covering light and electron microscopy, microanalysis, and vibrational microspectroscopy, at Hooke College of Applied Sciences in nearby Westmont, Ill.