Late Update
Once again, I'm updating later than expected. Anyways, here's my impression of the semester, by class:
CHEM 430a - Physical Chemistry
The more boring side of p-chem: thermodynamics and kinetics. The second semester of this course will be much more interesting. At least the professor (Dows) seems nicer than everyone makes him out to be. He's actually the hardest professor to understand of all my instructors this semester, but not because of an accent; he speaks perfect English, but his poor voicebox is so old that it doesn't project the way it used to. I mean, the guy got his Ph.D. in 1954!
MATH 425a - Fundamental Concepts of Analysis
The professor (Sacker) describes the course as follows: "Throughout your mathematics education, especially in calculus, a lot of detail has been swept under the rug. Instructors wave magic wands, and theorems fall from the sky without proof. But at some point, you have to come back, pick up the rug, and clean it out. That's what this course is all about. As we dust under the rug, I hope you find a few things that you thought you had lost, and even more things that you never knew you had in the first place." I think that basically says it all.
PHYS 153L - Optics, Relativity and Quantum Mechanics
So far, this class is pretty straighforward. I have the same professor I had for first semester physics: he's alright, not great but not bad either. Hopefully this course won't be much of a time-drainer.
CORE 104 - Change and the Future
Oh boy. Thematic Option. I'm supposed to have two books read by Wednesday. The course is about the meaning of Progress, as viewed from the perspective of political and social revolutions in early American history. ...Yeah. AMERICAN HISTORY. My least favorite subject of all time. Fortunately, Prof. Kann is heralded as one of the very top notch professors at the entire university, and I trust him to keep the course interesting. I just have to keep two things in mind: (1) TO was worth it because of my astrophysics class with Dappen, and (2) This is my last TO class ever!!
CHEM 490x - Directed Research in Chemistry
I met with Dr. Anna Krylov on Thursday and officially registered for 2 units of research. The Krylov group was welcoming (although I do feel like a bit of an outsider being the only one in the lab who doesn't speak Russian). Not quite as welcoming as the Crawford group, perhaps, but that's okay. I'm a little hazy on exactly what I'll be doing, but it sounds like Dr. Krylov will have me studying the electronic structure of the carbonate radical anion, with particular attention to excited states of the radical. While my summer in Crawford's lab has prepared me computationally, I've still got a lot of catching up to do with group theory and with radical chemistry if I want to make anything of this project. Here's hoping I can make the time to do it.
My SI course this semester is MATH226, which I did last fall as well. The professor I'm working with seems very amicable, and he talks at a good pace. Maybe there won't be that many kids in need of help, who knows. Either way, I'll try to be ready for them.
This may be the last semester I do SI. Either that, or I may change subjects again. I'd like to focus on my classes more, especially if I'm going to take 20 units next semester (a likely event). So probably no research next semester either.
The above has essentially been my life this past week. Otherwise, just two things to report:
(1) New priest at the Catholic Center. All went well with the music last week and things should run smoothly here on out.
(2) Genette gets a gold star for being so awesome.
Time for a keyboard break.
CHEM 430a - Physical Chemistry
The more boring side of p-chem: thermodynamics and kinetics. The second semester of this course will be much more interesting. At least the professor (Dows) seems nicer than everyone makes him out to be. He's actually the hardest professor to understand of all my instructors this semester, but not because of an accent; he speaks perfect English, but his poor voicebox is so old that it doesn't project the way it used to. I mean, the guy got his Ph.D. in 1954!
MATH 425a - Fundamental Concepts of Analysis
The professor (Sacker) describes the course as follows: "Throughout your mathematics education, especially in calculus, a lot of detail has been swept under the rug. Instructors wave magic wands, and theorems fall from the sky without proof. But at some point, you have to come back, pick up the rug, and clean it out. That's what this course is all about. As we dust under the rug, I hope you find a few things that you thought you had lost, and even more things that you never knew you had in the first place." I think that basically says it all.
PHYS 153L - Optics, Relativity and Quantum Mechanics
So far, this class is pretty straighforward. I have the same professor I had for first semester physics: he's alright, not great but not bad either. Hopefully this course won't be much of a time-drainer.
CORE 104 - Change and the Future
Oh boy. Thematic Option. I'm supposed to have two books read by Wednesday. The course is about the meaning of Progress, as viewed from the perspective of political and social revolutions in early American history. ...Yeah. AMERICAN HISTORY. My least favorite subject of all time. Fortunately, Prof. Kann is heralded as one of the very top notch professors at the entire university, and I trust him to keep the course interesting. I just have to keep two things in mind: (1) TO was worth it because of my astrophysics class with Dappen, and (2) This is my last TO class ever!!
CHEM 490x - Directed Research in Chemistry
I met with Dr. Anna Krylov on Thursday and officially registered for 2 units of research. The Krylov group was welcoming (although I do feel like a bit of an outsider being the only one in the lab who doesn't speak Russian). Not quite as welcoming as the Crawford group, perhaps, but that's okay. I'm a little hazy on exactly what I'll be doing, but it sounds like Dr. Krylov will have me studying the electronic structure of the carbonate radical anion, with particular attention to excited states of the radical. While my summer in Crawford's lab has prepared me computationally, I've still got a lot of catching up to do with group theory and with radical chemistry if I want to make anything of this project. Here's hoping I can make the time to do it.
My SI course this semester is MATH226, which I did last fall as well. The professor I'm working with seems very amicable, and he talks at a good pace. Maybe there won't be that many kids in need of help, who knows. Either way, I'll try to be ready for them.
This may be the last semester I do SI. Either that, or I may change subjects again. I'd like to focus on my classes more, especially if I'm going to take 20 units next semester (a likely event). So probably no research next semester either.
The above has essentially been my life this past week. Otherwise, just two things to report:
(1) New priest at the Catholic Center. All went well with the music last week and things should run smoothly here on out.
(2) Genette gets a gold star for being so awesome.
Time for a keyboard break.