Subject: Announcement: Electron density @ BCCE

From: [email-masked] (Alan Shusterman)
Date: 10 Feb 2002 13:05:26 PST

Symposium: "What Can We Teach (and Learn) with Electron Density?" at 17th
Biennial Conference on Chemical Education

Dear colleagues:

Chemistry teachers have traditionally used orbital-based concepts to describe
electron behavior in atoms and molecules. However, computer-generated
descriptions of electron density distributions (for example, electron density
isosurfaces and electrostatic potential maps) may offer a simpler way to talk
about electronic structure. General chemistry and organic chemistry textbooks
now feature pictures of electron density models, and a recent
undergraduate-level book, "Chemical Bonding and Molecular Geometry" by
Gillespie & Popelier, shows how molecular geometry can be interpreted from an
electron density perspective. Research scientists are also relying more and
more on electron density-based concepts (for example, Atoms-In-Molecules,
density functional calculations, etc.) to build models and explain
computational results.

If you are interested in the ways electron density-based models can be used to
teach chemistry, I encourage you to attend, and even submit a paper for, the
following one-day symposium:

"What Can We Teach (and Learn) with Electron Density?"

This symposium is being offered as part of the

17th Biennial Conference on Chemical Education (BCCE)

Western Washington University

Bellingham, WA

July 28-August 1, 2002.

The deadline for submitting a paper is February 26 (25?), 2002. More
information about the symposium and the 17th BCCE can be found at:

http://chem.wwu.edu/acs/bcce/index.html

Please email me if you have specific questions about this symposium.

-Alan

====

Alan Shusterman

Department of Chemistry

Reed College

3203 S.E. Woodstock Blvd.

Portland, OR 97202

503-771-1112, ext. 7699