CHEM 5430

Overall, this is a cool class; however, if you are looking for a class that is about different types of microscopes and how they work, this is not really the class. The main topic of this class is image formation. This is done by first reviewing ray optics, then moving into wave and Fourier optics, with an emphasis on the latter of the two. We briefly talked about a different types of microscopes towards the end of the class, but that was for about 4 lectures. This course is rather like a chemist's approaches to optics as a whole. Towards the end of the class, you actually get to assemble/disassemble a microscope as a class which was cool. Your grade is based off of homework and a final paper, not a single exam in this class. For homework, he reaches out to you about any concerns and allows you to explain/revise your answer. Also, the homework is normally not very long and ranges from just doing a little bit of math to coding in MATLAB or Mathematica. The final paper was simple and short and was on a topic of your choice as long as it connected to imaging. Gahlmann himself is a very nice professor and can break down the math in the class to a level where everyone can understand. This class is very low stress and a very low time commitment. #tCFfall22