Wittenberg’s Science Building, relatively unchanged since its creation 30 years ago, will soon undergo renovations updating its size and technology for a new century of scientific pursuit.

The same holds true for Wittenberg’s chemistry department, which has enjoyed great success thanks to a traditional curriculum, evolving pedagogical approaches and strong technological capabilities.

This mixture of tradition and evolution gives the department the best of both worlds, according to chair Dave Finster, professor of chemistry. “Our curriculum is fairly traditional, but that is OK with us,” he said.

“We think a traditional, solid background in chemistry is really useful for many career paths, be it chemistry, pre-medicine, pre-pharmacology, secondary school teaching or pre-law.”

In fact, the five main divisions of chemistry — inorganic, organic, analytical, physical and biochemistry — are significant for all the sciences.

“The biologists, physicists and geologists all recognize that they can’t do much in their own field if they don’t know something about the basic structure of matter and how it interacts,” Finster said.

“We feel obliged to teach a good curriculum that serves not only chemistry majors, but also other science majors.” This teaching philosophy combines both tradition and evolution.

“I don’t see any revolutions for us in chemistry,” Finster said. “It’s really a matter of evolution. The courses will continue to be updated as what scientists need to know from chemistry to function as good scientists changes.”

Rather than focusing merely on the memorization of information, chemistry professors push their students to think in a more sophisticated manner.

As a result, chemistry students are placed in a rigorous program stressing critical thinking, including junior and senior seminars, lab reports and numerous examinations.

It is this rigor that Finster said chemistry students have come to expect from their chemistry classes. “After it’s all over, they know they’re walking away with something,” Finster said.

The strong personal bonds that form between chemistry professors and students only intensifies during the rigorous program.

“The quality of the staff and the relationships we build with our students make this a unique department,” Finster said.

“We have an open-door policy, both literally and metaphorically, and because of that we get to work with students and promote their intellectual and personal growth in ways that are not always common in a chemistry program.”

One example of this, according to Finster, is a recent chemistry graduate who went to law school. “It is clear to him that that the training he had in chemistry prepared him for law school,” he said.

“It taught him how to think about arguments and logical conclusions, to question assumptions of arguments. Now he is a practicing attorney.”The chemistry department has evolved with the times in other ways, too.

For one, the newly created biochemistry/molecular biology major acknowledges the explosive growth of biochemistry in recent years.

Also, the greater use of computers and other instruments in undergraduate curriculums has forced Wittenberg’s chemistry department to pursue grants from such outlets as the National Science Foundation in order to update its technology.

“We received a successful grant that upgraded our NMR [nuclear magnetic resonance] a year and a half ago,” Finster said. “Now we’re doing what we call a multi-nuclear pulse NMR, which is the state-of-the-art way to do it.”

Because of the generosity of chemistry alumni, the department was able to upgrade its NMR. “A good bulk of the money” for the upgrades came as a result of a targeted campaign to chemistry alumni.

According to Finster, alumni had already contributed more than $20,000 as of June 1999.

The generosity of chemistry alumni speaks well of their appreciation for the department and for what their chemistry major has enabled them to accomplish after Wittenberg. “It’s a lucrative major,” Finster said.

“There are so many options for a chemistry major that most of our seniors have too many options.”

—James P. Austin, ’98