Chemistry at Calvin College

At Calvin College we have introduced computational chemistry at several levels first year, intermediate, and advanced chemistry courses. Except for an alternate-year computational chemistry course offered during our January term (4-1-4 curriculum), we do not have a separate course devoted to computational chemistry in the curriculum. The January term course is not required of students who major in chemistry. So our introduction of computational chemistry has been mainly through incorporation into existing courses. A major part of our effort has been in writing syllabus materials to go with the exercises. Part of our effort has been in development of software to illustrate quantum chemistry applied to simple atoms and molecules, which we describe below. 

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Born in 1911 to an immigrant family in St. Paul, Minnesota. Calvin became interested in natural phenomena early in life he collected rocks, watched birds and, in the family grocery store, mused about the physical composition of all those products he saw on the shelves. Inevitably he became drawn to chemistry, earning his B.S. at the Michigan College of Mining and Technology in 1931 and a Ph.D. in 1935 from the University of Minnesota. 

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