Dear VIPEr friends,

Not sure how well everyone's chair keeps them up-to-date so thought I would share this with the community.

I encourage you to take a look at the white paper, discuss it in your department, and send feedback to CPT. They read it all and they really use it to make decisions. 

I would also be interested in hearing what you think on this forum.

Joanne

Help, I am under assault.  We are reviewing our curriculum in an effort to justify a new tenure-track line.  One of the courses that is getting serious attention (in a bad way) is my first inorganic course.  As far as a P-chem colleague is concerned, it is toast.  I do not want to go down to one inorganic course.  Any support of horror stories from people that have done this would certainly be appreciated.

 Either that or insider info on available positions in departments that value inorganic.

I had an extended conversation with a colleague over the weekend about what he (as a non-solid state chemist) should convey to students about solids.  Happily, this conversation was made all the more pleasant by L'énorme (GIANT cone of Belgian fries) and some good beer.  Here's what I think are the 7 things that students should know about solids coming out of an inorganic chemistry course.  Maybe you don't have time or expertise do all 7, but some is better than none.