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New Text Book on Chemistry Published by KAIST Professor and Student
A chemistry textbook written in English and Korean will aid Korean students to learn General Chemistry in a global academic setting.
Korean students majoring in chemistry and looking for an opportunity to study abroad will have a new, handy textbook that presents them with a practical introduction to an English speaking lecture on general chemistry.
Aiming for advanced Korean high school and college/university students, the inter-language textbook is written by two incumbent professors teaching chemistry at a university in Korea and the US. The book will help Korean students prepare for a classroom where various topics of general chemistry are presented and discussed in English. Clear, collated sections of English and Korean text provide the student with sufficient explanation of the rudimentary topics and concepts.
Composed of 15 chapters on the core subjects of General Chemistry, i.e., Stoichiometry and Chemical Reactions, Thermochemistry, Atomic Structure, and Bonding, the textbook includes essential English vocabulary and usage sections for each chapter; it also contains a pre-reading study guide on the subject that prepares the student for listening to a lecture. This section includes view-graph type slides, audio files, and follow-up questions the student can use to prepare for an English-speaking course. The various accompanying audio files are prepared to expose the student to English scientific dialogue and serve as examples for instruction at Korean secondary and tertiary schools.
The book was coauthored by Korean and American scientists: A father and son, who have taught chemistry at an American and Korean university, wrote the book. Professor Melvyn R. Churchill at the State University of New York at Buffalo and Professor David G. Churchill at KAIST prepared all of the technical English text which was adapted from General Chemistry course lecture notes; the text was further shaped by original perspectives arising from many student interactions and questions.
This English text was translated into Korean by Professor Kwanhee Lee from the Department of Life and Food Science at Handong Global University, who coauthored a previous preparatory book for Korean students in a different subject. He also supplied an important introductory section which serves as a general guide to the classroom student. Kibong Kim, a doctoral student in the Department of Chemistry at KAIST, helped in preparing the book as well.
“This has been definitely a collaborative undertaking with an international academic crew and it underscores that the Korean internationalization in science is mainstream. Professors and a Korean student created a new book for Korean consumption and benefit,” Professor David G. Churchill says.
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Bibliography: “How to Prepare for General Chemistry Taught in English” by David George Churchill, Melvyn Rowen Churchill, Kwanhee Lee & Kibong Kim, Darakwon Publishing, Paju, Republic of Korea, 2010, 400 pp, ISBN 978-89-5995-730-9 (1 Audio CD included)
2010.04.02 View 14019 -
Storing Stably Hydrogen Atoms in Icy Materials Discovered
KAIST, Aug. 8, 2008 -- A KAIST research team led by Prof. Huen Lee of the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering has discovered that icy organic hydrates, which contain small cages that can trap guest molecules, can be used to create and trap hydrogen atoms at higher temperatures.
The properties and reactions of single hydrogen atoms are of great scientific interest because of their inherent quantum mechanical behavior; experimentally, they can be generated and stabilized at very low temperatures (4 K) by high-energy irradiation of solid molecular hydrogen.
The finding was reported in the journal of American Chemical Society and featured in the "Editor"s Choice" in the July 11 issue of Science as a recent research highlight.
Hydrogen is a clean and sustainable form of energy that can be used in mobile and stationary applications. Hydrogen has the potential to solve several major challenges today: depletion of fossil fuels, poor air quality, and green house gas emissions.
However, the trapping of hydrogen atoms in crystalline solid matrix has never been attempted mainly because of experimental difficulties in identifying the generated hydrogen atoms with either spectroscopic or microscopic technique.
"To overcome the barriers and limitations of the existing storage approaches, we have continuously attempted to find the new hydrogen storage media such as icy powders and other related inclusion compounds," said Prof. Lee
The discovery follows the breakthrough concept Prof. Lee"s research team proposed in Nature in 2005 to use pure ice to capture and store hydrogen molecules. At moderate temperature and pressure conditions small guest molecules are entrapped in pure ice powders to form the mixed icy hydrate materials.
"Stable existence of single hydrogen molecule/radical in icy crystalline matrices may offer significant advantages in exploring hydrogen as a quantum medium because icy hydrogen hydrates can be formed at milder conditions when compared with pure solid hydrogen, which requires the ultra low temperature of 4.2 K," said Prof. Lee.
The novel design and synthesis of ionic and radicalized icy hydrates are expected to open a new field for inclusion chemistry and ice-based science and technology. Specifically, the fact that hydrogen atoms can be stably stored in icy materials might provide versatile and practical applications to energy devices including fuel cells, ice-induced reactions, and novel energy storage process, according to the KAIST professor.
2008.08.07 View 13074