APPROVED GRADUATE COURSES
To fulfill the degree requirements, students must complete a total of seven (7) full course equivalents at the graduate level consisting of the following components:
(a) Comprehensive Examination (Chemistry and Materials Science 6010) (a non-credit required course)
(b) PhD Seminar (CHMS 6600 and 6601) (two non-credit required courses)
(c) two half-course electives at the graduate level
(d) PhD Dissertation CHMS 6901 (9900) (worth 6 FCEs)
(e) Thesis Proposal and Seminar (CHMS 6050) (a non-credit required course)
The half-course electives may be drawn from 5000-level courses offered within the Department of Chemistry and other cognate departments as recommended by the Supervisory Committee.
The Supervisory Committee is responsible for assigning courses from the following list of approved offerings that will advance the student’s academic plan. At least one must be chosen from the four core Chemistry and Materials Science courses -- CHMS5111, CHMS5311, CHMS5511 and CHMS5711 -- which have been designed to provide fundamental knowledge/skills that will prepare the student for more specialized courses and to conduct interdisciplinary research. Not all courses may be available each year.
Core Courses in Chemistry and Materials Science
At least one must be chosen from the four core CHMS courses, which include:
Chemistry and Materials Science 5111 (0.5 FCE) - Advances in Semiconductor Materials.The course will introduce advanced semiconductor materials based on compound alloys such as arsenides, phosphides, nitrides, etc. Their properties - electrical and optical - will be determined on the basis of their electron band structures. Special attention will be given to calculation of the electron band structures on the ternary and quaternary semiconductor compound alloys and determination of the properties. New phenomena in the disordered alloys such as tunnel optical absorption and excitons of the structure will studied.
Chemistry and Materials Science 5311 (0.5 FCE) - Materials Characterization. A cross-disciplinary course in instrumental analysis and research methodology. Students choose three modules from a series of offerings that can include scanning electron microscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, mass spectroscopy, optical microscopy, paper testing, chromatography, and DNA sequencing.
Chemistry and Materials Science 5511 (0.5 FCE) - Surface Science. The chemistry and physics of solid surfaces. Emphasis on fundamental aspects of the following areas of surface science: surface crystallography and reconstruction; kinetics of gas-solid interactions; adsorption; heterogeneous catalysis; oxidation and corrosion; and nucleation and growth of thin films by physical and chemical vapour deposition.
Chemistry and Materials Science 5711 (0.5 FCE) - Nanostructured Materials. This course will explore the preparation, characterization and applications of nanostructured materials from a chemical perspective.
Compulsory Chemistry and Materials Science Courses
Students must register for all of the following courses:
Chemistry and Materials Science 6010 - Comprehensive Examination. The comprehensive examination will assess the student's general preparedness to continue in the PhD degree and specific field in his or her chosen area of study.
Chemistry and Materials Science 6050 - Thesis Proposal and Seminar. Students will be required to present a seminar on their literature review and thesis research proposal. This non-credit course must be taken within the first three terms of the student's entry into the PhD program.
Chemistry and Materials Science 6600 - PhD Seminar First Year. A compulsory seminar course for all PhD students in their first year of study. Students are expected to attend all graduate and speaker series seminars within their general field of study.
Chemistry and Materials Science 6601 - PhD Seminar Second Year. A compulsory seminar course for all PhD students in their second year of study. Students are expected to attend all graduate and speaker series seminars within their general field of study.
Other Approved Graduate Courses
Other approved courses include:
Biology 5111 (0.5 FCE) - Special Topics I. Topics to be arranged in the form of readings, tutorials, and seminars to suit student area of specialization.
Biology 5131 (0.5 FCE) - Special Topics II. Topics to be arranged in the form of readings, tutorials, and seminars to suit student area of specialization.
Biology 5650 (0.5 FCE) - Advanced Issues in Biotechnology. Graduate students will critically evaluate published materials and lead discussions of current technical and ethical issues in biotechnology: plant biotechnology and genetically modified foods, mammalian cloning, reproductive technologies, gene therapies, drug development and approval processes, implications of cloning to biodiversity and lateral gene flow, bioremediation using cloned organisms. Emphasis will be placed on the interpretation and simplification of scientific information for general audience.
Biotechnology 6210 (0.5 FCE) - Topics in Medical Biotechnology. Current literature and classical papers pertaining to Medical Biotechnology are reviewed in detail.
Biotechnology 6230 (0.5 FCE) - Topics in Environmental Biotechnology. Current literature and classical papers pertaining to Environmental Biotechnology are reviewed in detail.
Biotechnology 6310 (0.5 FCE) - Advances in Biotechnology. In-depth analysis of special topics in biotechnology.
Chemistry 5151 (0.5 FCE) - Special Topics in Advanced Inorganic Chemistry. Topics may be chosen from: recent advances in bio-inorganic chemistry; transition metal and main group cluster chemistry; transition metals in polymer synthesis; recent advances in organometallic chemistry; heterogeneous catalysis.
Chemistry 5171 (0.5 FCE) - Advanced Topics in Analytical Chemistry. Recent developments in instrumental methods of chemical analysis; topics to be chosen from the areas of electro-analysis, surface analysis, laser applications in chemical analysis.
Chemistry 5230 (0.5 FCE) - Special Topics in Advanced Organic Chemistry. Topics may be chosen from: organic photochemistry; structure-reactivity relationships; qualitative MO theory; asymmetric reactions; natural product chemistry.
Chemistry 5251 (0.5 FCE) - Special Topics I. Subject matter determined by the needs and interests of the participating students and faculty.
Chemistry 5271 (0.5 FCE) - Physical Organic Chemistry. Transition state theory, substituent effects on rates, isotope effects, solvent effects, structure and reactivity, free energy relationships (Hammett and Taft). Reactivity of free radicals. Theoretical aspects of reactivity based on molecular orbital theory. Woodward-Hoffman formalism and symmetry controlled reactions.
Chemistry 5490 (0.5 FCE) - Special Topics in Advanced Physical Chemistry. Topics may be chosen from: equilibrium thermodynamics and irreversible thermodynamics; electrochemistry; kinetics - emphasizing theories of chemical kinetics; surface and colloid chemistry; electrical and optical aspects of molecular behaviour.
Engineering 5251 (0.5 FCE) - Environmental Chemistry. The emphasis of this course is on understanding the chemical mechanisms that control the behaviour of inorganic contaminants in aquatic systems, including surface waters, groundwater, and pore water in solid waste. Topics include chemical thermodynamics, reaction kinetics, acid-base equilibria, alkalinity and acidity, speciation, mineral precipitation/dissolution, sorption, ion exchange, complexation, and oxidation-reduction reactions. Standard software packages for predicting chemical equilibria among dissolved, adsorbed, solid, and gas phases will be presented.
Engineering 5351 (0.5 FCE) - Experimental Design and Analysis for Environmental Engineers.The content of this course will first focus on the description of the static and dynamic characteristics of measuring systems. Secondly, concepts such as probability, random variables, stationary and ergodic random processes, correlations, and power spectra will be discussed. Finally, data processing techniques including programming of time series statistical analysis, fast-Fourier transforms and spectra will be visited. Also, description of linear and non-linear regression methods and computation of measurement uncertainty will be covered.
Engineering 5451 (0.5 FCE) - Physicochemical Treatment Processes. Theory and design of chemical and physical processes utilized in the treatment of water and wastewater, sedimentation, flotation, coagulation, precipitation, filtration, membrane separations, disinfection, ion exchange, adsorption, and gas transfer.
Engineering 5631 (0.5 FCE) - Advanced Topics in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Current developments and specialized topics in Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Engineering 5651 (0.5 FCE) - Advanced Topics in Environmental Engineering. Topics will vary, depending on the research interests of the instructor. Topics which may be covered include: mine waste management, pulp and paper industrial waste management, assessment and remediation of contaminated sites, engineering hydrology, groundwater hydrology, emerging topics in aquatic science, experimental methods and information management, and turbulent transport.
Geology 5111 (0.5 FCE) - Mineral Equilibria. Principles of phase equilibria as applied to sulfide systems. Study of mineralogically significant systems, including Fe-S, Fe-Ni-S, Fe-Zn-S, and Cu-Fe-S, and their application to ore genesis.
Geology 5113 (0.5 FCE) - Geochemistry of Ore Deposits. Selected topics including aqueous chemistry as applied to the genesis of hydrothermally emplaced ore deposits, chemical parameters of carbonate hosted Pb-Zn deposits, and chemical models for the origin of stratiform massive sulphide deposits.
Geology 5115 (0.5 FCE) - Advanced Mineralogy. Application of x-ray diffraction and other techniques to mineralogical studies.
Geology 5155 (0.5 FCE) - Methods in Geochemistry. Discussion and practice of the methods used in analytical geochemistry with emphasis upon the use of x-ray fluorescence for the major and trace element analysis of silicate rocks, and instrumental and radiochemical methods of neutron activation analysis as applied to the determination of trace elements at the ppm and ppb level.
Geology 5157 (0.5 FCE) - Advanced Topics in Geochemistry. Discussion of aspects of the geochemistry of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks with emphasis upon the controls of element distribution. Possible topics include nucleosynthesis and meteorite geo-chemistry. Sr, Nd and Pb isotope geochemistry, mantle geochemistry, geo-chemistry of the rare siderophile and chalcophile elements. Some experimental work involving neutron activation analysis or radio-tracers may be required.
Physics 5111 (0.5 FCE) - Advanced Quantum Mechanics I. An in-depth study of some of the fundamental concepts of Quantum Mechanics is presented, with an introduction to more advanced techniques, such as symmetry and tensor operators, density matrix, Heisenberg and interactions pictures, field quantization, second quantization and many particle systems.
Physics 5171 (0.5 FCE) - Quantum Statistical Mechanics. Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac statistics are developed and then applied to black-body radiation, conduction electrons in metals, lattice vibrations in solids, magnetism, and superconductivity. The kinetic theory of transport processes is developed from the simplest approximation, to the relaxation time approximation, and finally to the near-exact formulation of the Boltzmann equation. Applications include viscosity, thermal conductivity, self diffusion, and electrical conductivity.
Physics 5211 (0.5 FCE) - Solid State Physics I. Electron states in crystals. Lattice vibrations. Electron-phonon interactions.
Physics 5217 (0.5 FCE) - Modern Optics. Recent applications and developments in Quantum Optics are covered, including quantized theory of radiation with applications to coherent and squeezed states, two-level and three-level atom, atom-field interaction, and non-linear quantum optics. Further applications include optical cavities, light in medium, and theory of lasers. Additional selected topics, such as negative refractive index, slow light and optical angular momentum will also be introduced.
Physics 5231 (0.5 FCE) - Solid State Physics II. Transport properties of solids. Optical properties. Introduction to polaron and superconductivity theories.
Physics 5311 (0.5 FCE) - Experimental Methods I. This course is designed to develop understanding and use of experimental techniques in Physics research.
Physics 5411 (0.5 FCE) - Topics in Physics I. The subject matter of this course may change from year to year, and depends on the interests of the students.
Physics 5431 (0.5 FCE) - Topics in Physics II. The subject matter of this course may change from year to year, and depends on the interests of the students.
Last revised: August 29, 2017